Nine Directorial Debuts That Blow My Mind

2014 was a great year for first-time directors.  If you’ve been listening to the ITMODCast, you’ve heard Brad and Darren rave about The Babadook, the feature film debut of actress-turned-director Jennifer Kent, and The One I Love, from Charlie McDowell, which Brad described as “marriage therapy as done by Ray Bradbury.” One of my favorites of last year was Dear White People, a searing debut from Justin Simien that hasn’t been talked about much on this blog or the podcast but that I found exceptionally wonderful, with its distinct point-of-view and sprawling cast of characters.  And while it wouldn’t have made my top films list, Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre holds the promise of films fronted by female characters that feel more real and robust than 99% of what is out there in the market currently.

With so many new directors coming out strong in the last year, I’ve been thinking about directorial debuts throughout film history that have so confidently and surely defined a director and introduced them onto the scene as a force that cannot be ignored.  I’ve come up with a list of nine directorial debuts that I consider the best and must-see films for anyone who considers themselves a film nerd.  

A few notes (because I like rules and structure):  this list is unranked, as I’m looking specifically at the strength of the debut and how it relates to the directors’ filmography and not as interested in comparing or ranking the individual films.  To be included, the film must be the director’s first feature length film with some sort of distribution or release- any shorts or television direction is irrelevant here as are unreleased student films.  This is also purely a list based on my personal preferences and what I’ve seen, so there are definitely films missing.  Please leave a comment or tweet me (@beccagrawl) or the blog (@ITMODCast) or write on the Facebook page to let me know what I’ve missed!

Citizen Kane

There is no way this isn’t the first debut that comes to mind when you think about directors releasing a film that announces that they have arrived.  Citizen Kane has been discussed often on this blog and the podcast (and in the world of film nerdom) ad nauseum but everything that’s said is true.  To think that this film - so beautifully constructed, the characters so richly drawn, the performances so memorable, and the technological aspects of the film so innovative and evocative - came from a first time director is mind-boggling.  

Hard Eight (Sydney)

I love Paul Thomas Anderson and his films.  It is hard to find a director with a body of work that is so overwhelmingly great, without a single true misstep or flop, and PTA has that in spades.  You can debate and discuss the failings and merits of any given film but his entire body of work is some of the best ever put on film ever.  And it all starts with Hard Eight.  It is not big and bold the way other films on the list are but it has compelling, complex characters that feel real and honest and not particularly likeable, which is truly the hallmark of any given PTA film.  

She’s Gotta Have It

Spike Lee is the opposite of PTA for me, in a many ways.  His career has missteps and flops and films where he feels like he’s trying too hard to be “Spike Lee” and films where he feels like he’s trying too hard NOT to be “Spike Lee.”  But he has directed some of my favorite films and some of the greatest American films ever.  His debut, She’s Gotta Have It, gives the audience a great sense of what a “Spike Lee” film will be and what, at his best, that means for us and for society.  Not to mention that this film reminds us that some of the best female film characters can be written by men and directed by male directors, if they take the time and energy to craft real representations of women for their movies.

This Is Spinal Tap

Comedic sensibility is a strange thing.  It’s so specific to an individual - something I find hilarious might leave you cold or something that tickles me yesterday might enrage me tomorrow.  But I’d have to say you’re an idiot or a fool if you don’t find This Is Spinal Tap hilarious.  A lot of folks forget that while it features Christopher Guest and much of the crew who will appear in his films, this one is directed by Rob Reiner.  And while I easily could have chosen The Big Picture (Guest’s debut), I chosen Spinal Tap because A) it still cracks me up after a few dozen viewings and B) it’s a wonderful harbinger of the memorable films Reiner gives us immediately following this one - Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, The American President.  Reiner comes out strong as a director in this film and he showcases his ability to direct comedy, drama, satire, and just about everything else.

Bottle Rocket

Some might say that Bottle Rocket is the least Wes Anderson-y film that Wes Anderson ever directed and that may be true.  For me, the Wes Anderson elements are clearly fermenting in the film - his particular eye for casting against type or against audience expectations, his enjoyment in luxuriating in visual spaces, and his enjoyment of the comedy l’absurde.  The filmmaking here shows confidence and a specific point-of-view, which defines Anderson’s work and if it’s good enough to be named one of Martin Scorcese’s best films of the 1990s, it’s good enough for me.  (Also, gotta show some support for my fellow Houstonian.)

sex, lies, and videotape

I didn’t watch sex, lies, and videotape until college, so I was definitely experiencing this film through the eyes of “redefines independent film for a new era.”  That doesn’t lessen the fact that Steven Soderbergh does redefine independent film with his debut.  While it’s not my favorite Soderbergh and it might not be to everyone’s tastes, I love how nuanced and mature the script is without being tawdry or cheesy and it’s clear that Soderbergh has a command over his actors and an ability to pull interesting and deep performances from his cast.  

Reservoir Dogs

If you’re about my age and share my interest in film, you usually fall into two categories - those who saw Pulp Fiction first or those who saw Reservoir Dogs first.  I happened to have seen Reservoir Dogs first (a couple years after it came out) before I saw Pulp Fiction, so for me, this is the best Quentin Tarantino film, period.  This film so distinctly showcases who Tarantino is as a director, who his influences are as a filmmaker, and what sort of films he’s going to give us over the course of his career.  It is the defining film for several of the actors who appear and it has a timeless quality that is difficult to achieve for a first time filmmaker.  Talk to anyone involved with this blog or the podcast and Reservoir Dogs will come up in the first 15 minutes, guaranteed.

Badlands

So much about Terrence Malick and his films that don’t connect with viewers and are ripe for criticism.  I have always loved Malick - so much that The Thin Red Line was part of my senior thesis and I hosted a film screening to try to lure people on the Malick train - but regardless of how you feel about the director, you can’t deny that Badlands is a stellar debut.  Malick took a true crime story and spun a dark, gritty, sparse tale about two doomed lovers/killers, played brilliantly by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.  This film is unique on this list as I find Badlands to be the least-Malick-y film he ever made, thus making more accessible to viewers and audiences that might not be inclined to connect to his other films.  Many people I know who don’t care for Malick haven’t seen Badlands, and I implore you to check this out if you haven’t.   

Blood Simple

The Coen Brothers make great films.  That’s just the truth of it.  Not every film is a winner but they make great films.  There is so much to love about this film - the debut of the Coens, the first feature for Barry Sonnenfeld, incredible performances from a fantastic cast, and a story that brings neo-Film Noir back in the 1980s.  It might not be your favorite Coens Brothers movie and it isn’t the best Coens Brothers movie but it’s a fantastic introduction to what the Coens Brothers are best at, which is redefining and subverting genre expectations.  It’s equally violent and funny and a film that I find myself constantly recommending to folks who love the Coens but seemed to have missed it. 

-Rebecca

 

Matt’s Ten Favorite Film Noir (at this moment)

    A friend requested a list of good Film Noir to watch, so I put this together.  Like most genre there is no 100% sure rule for what does or does not count as Noir.  So I’m listing my ten favorite films that I think of when I think of Noir.  These are all must sees.  While I don’t think the order is arbitrary, the exact placement largely depends on how fresh in my mind each film is.  I think these should serve as a solid jumping-off point for any new Noir viewer.

10.  Double Indemnity (1944) Two horribly unlikable people fall into a sick kind of love that can only lead to one place.  Grim and weirdly kinky, it’s a must.

9.  Detour (1945) Don’t pick up a hitch-hiker.  Just don’t do it.  Things go from bad to much, much worse for a poor schmuck too dumb to get out of his own way when he gets mixed up with one seriously crazy dame.

8.  Tension (1949) A meek pharmacist with a horrid wife gets the rage and plans a murder.  Things don’t quite go as planned.  The twists and turns in this film are a bit hard to swallow, but the cast is so good, it manages to be a lot of fun to watch.

7.  Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles directs and plays the disgusting ogre good ‘ol boy cop at the heart of the movie’s darkest depths.  Charlton Heston is the honorable Mexican cop who has to brave bigotry and corruption.  Janet Leigh is his pretty young wife who goes on a whirlwind journey into terror.  Beautiful and disgusting.  And Welles saves the harshest and ugliest stuff for himself, looking like a bloated toad, ranting with vile hate.  It’s great.

6.  Pickup on South Street (1953) Perpetually shifty Richard Widmark is delightfully sleazy in this gritty tale of life on the streets and those danged dirty Reds.

5.  Out of the Past (1947)  Robert Mitchum plays a guy who just wants to be left alone.  But his dark and dirty past won’t stay behind him.  A very cool film with a really good cast.

4.  The Big Heat (1953) Filled with all the nasty this genre has to offer.  Glenn Ford is a bastard.  Lee Marvin is a beast.  And Gloria Grahame proves that Hell hath no fury like a woman scalded.

3.  The Hitch-Hiker (1953) This down and dirty, low budget flick is full of uncomfortable tensions and sinister behavior.  Director Ida Lupino may have been better known for her work in front of the camera, but it’s clear she had plenty of talent behind it as well.

2.  Kiss Me Deadly (1955) From Ralph Meeker’s casual evil (and he’s the protagonist) and the crackling dialog to the absolutely terrifying conclusion, this is one of the more brutal and nasty films of its time.  I’m often surprised people don’t talk about it more.

1.  The Maltese Falcon (1941)  While this is not even close to my favorite Humphrey Bogart film (that‘s In a Lonely Place), nor my favorite Noir (possibly Kiss Me Deadly), it does seem to be the film all others in the genre are judged by/compared to.  And with good reason.  The cast is awesome and it plays out in a lot of cool and crazy ways.  And when you think Bogart, you’re probably thinking about this or Casablanca.  It's an absolute must see and worthy of its classic status.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (3/3/13-3/9/13)

    What can I say?  Not a lot changing or going on in this Dork’s life right now.  Though, Sunday night I did catch another episode of Dimension X on The Big Broadcast.  The episode was “The Universe,” based on another Heinlein story.  A guy on a quest to find out the truth about his world and break the chains of superstition travels through levels of the Ship, the whole world he knows.  There are mutants roaming the corridors, legends of a creator who made the ship, an afterlife taking ‘the Trip,’ and more.  I need to track down more Dimension X.  The two I’ve heard so far have been fantastic.  I know Gunsmoke, Johnny Dollar, and Dragnet are all popular, but Dimension X is really more my speed.


Farscape Season 3:  “Stop, stop, stop!  This makes no sense.  YOU make no sense!”  This season does what Farscape has done since the beginning, ratchets up the stakes, the passions, the dangers, and the operatic insanity to new heights.  The adventures of John Crichton and his band of intergalactic ex-con friends and “…the nightmares I’ve seen…the wonders I’ve seen.”  Everyone is taken through the ringer, bent, twisted, broken, burned, doubled, and put through things only science fiction provides a canvas for and possibilities for redemption you don’t see in other genre.  And of course, it all builds to a totally insane cliffhanger finale.  Several long time cast members, including one of the original crew, don’t make it out of this season alive.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril:  Open on a killer topless lady!  You have my attention.  These movies have taught me one thing, that Japan was full of wandering musicians, most of whom were also trained killers.  In this fourth installment, father and son are separated.  When little Daigoro meets the Japanese John Travolta, the pieces are put in place for a fight.  You know this guy is going down.  A temple full of ninjas?  It’s not long before they’re stumped.  More strange morality from an honor driven society.  The use of flashbacks is also an interesting feature in this series.  Each film reveals more about our heroes as it reveals more about various new characters.  Ogami kills an unbelievable number of people.  And are they setting up for the eventual end of the series?  Time will tell.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons:  Crazy.  So five guys, each with one fifth of his pay, and one fifth of the job’s details are dispatched to test and die by Ogami’s sword.  OK.  Seems like an inefficient system, but OK.  Wave Slashing Technique!!!  Life seems extremely complicated in Feudal Japan.  But little Daigoro is pretty hardcore.  He takes a beating just to prove a point.  If that kid makes it out of this series, he’s gonna turn into one bad mo-fo when he gets older.  Is it wrong that the under water ninja fight made me chuckle?  I think it was actually meant to be funny, so hopefully not.  The final fight inside the home/palace is nuts.  The way the shots are framed is very odd, but kind of cool.  Often focused just off the action, on some piece of scenery, it give the fight a different feel.  And so, so much blood.  Not a lot of film franchises feature a hero beheading a mother and child.  That’s one of the things that makes this series kind of unique.  After the near fatal finale of the previous film, Ogami comes out of this one relatively unscathed.

Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire:  “A pox on them all, if they can’t take a joke.”  Oh, crap.  Somebody’s D&D game got turned into a movie with Kevin Sorbo and poor man’s JCVD, Olivier Gruner?  How did this not sweep the nation?  I was marveling at the dreadful script, poor acting, and just general awkwardness of the opening credit narration and flashback, when a name came out of the mist.  Albert Pyun.  Oh, man.  Listen, Albert Pyun is behind a couple movies I love (perhaps in spite of their quality).  But he is also behind some of the most amazingly awful movies I’ve ever seen.  This was obviously gonna be fun.  A magic hair-style princess wants help.  Instead she gets Sorbo.  There’s a porno vibe to the movie.  The cast and filming technique all have an extra dose of sleaze.  Super, super cheesy CGI lends to the overall feeling of home-made video.  The story hops around, skips key sequences, narrates over bits to try to connect scenes.  It’s really, really not good.  Michael Pere’s amazing wigs are something to see, though.  At the end of the day, the movie doesn’t really make a danged lick of sense.  And what also doesn’t make sense is 10 minutes of credits (though they do help pad the runtime to almost an hour and a half).  Just dreadful.  But somehow almost enjoyably bad.  That kind of bad that lets you know, if you had the time and inclination, you could do better.

Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker:  My doppelganger Ewan McGregor is secretly a James Bond type adventurer.  When Winter from Band of Brothers kills him, his annoying nephew is forced into the business.  There are probably enough movies like this now that it could be considered a full-on subgenre; the kid spy movie.  Spy Kids and its sequels, Agent Cody Banks, etc.  This one has a pretty good cast of adults (excepting Alicia Silverstone), but the snotty kid lead is, well, the snotty kid lead.  The jump-cut style of action in the movie is annoying, and out of place in what is otherwise a made-for-TV feeling film.  With the editing style and the music choices, it’s obviously trying really hard to by ‘hip’ and ‘appeal to the young people.’  But it feels false, which it too bad.  It also feels like big, probably important parts of the book didn’t make the screen, mostly the parts that would make the viewer care about anyone.  Stephen Fry adds some class, while Mickey Rourke adds some crazy.  Overall, it just feels like there isn’t enough interesting at the core of this to bother.  It’s not that it’s badly done or whatever.  It’s clear a lot of work went into the making of the film.  It’s just not that interesting.

Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie:  “Burn heretics!” Half of me says, ‘how did this ever happen?’  The other half says, ‘how did it take this long?’  The 40K universe begs to be realized visually.  Artwork has been a key element since its creation, and seeing it as an animated film makes sense (though live action would be welcome).  Unlike other movies based on table-top games (Mutant Chronicles, Dungeons & Dragons, etc.), it’s clear this was created by people familiar with the game (writer Dan Abnett is among the most popular author of Warhammer novels, so I guess it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise).  It gets nothing wrong when it comes to details.  The tech is right, the style is right, the themes are right, the names and places are right.  This IS a Warhammer 40,000 movie.  In a lot of ways, this is about as generic a story as they could tell.  Space Marines (Ultramarines, no less) VS. the Black Legion (the demon looks Khorne, but I’m not up on my Chaos armies).  Other than Imperial Guard or Tyranids, I don’t know who else might have worked and still been approachable to John Q. Public.  Still, I’d have liked to see Slaanesh, Tzeentch, or maybe even some Eldar and Orks?  Anyway, the CGI isn’t bad, and the voice acting is pretty good.  The script isn’t amazing, but it’s serviceable.  Space Marine dialog is almost destined to be somewhat stilted by their nature.  There isn’t much of a story.  And the pacing is oddly slow.  Not boring, but slow.  I would have liked a good battle hymn during the last stand, though I don’t know that a casual viewer would accept a bunch of sci-fi soldiers singing as they face unbeatable odds.  But you know what, for a first attempt at a 40K movie, this was pretty good.  And it’s one of those all too rare adult animated science fiction films.  Nice.

Moon:  David Bowie’s kid and that squirrelly guy (Guy) from Galaxy Quest somehow came together to create one of the all time best science fiction films of all time.  Who’d have thought?  An homage to films like 2001, Outland, and Silent Running, and a darned good science fiction film on its own, Moon is a quiet, thoughtful, emotional movie.  Made on a super-low budget, it manages to pack quite a punch.  Visually excellent, great music, and a powerhouse performance from lead Sam Rockwell.  A must.

Attack of the Puppet People:  “What would I do in St. Luis?”  John Agar!  I love my NetFlix queue.  I never really know what will come in next, and it’s like a little fun challenge to watch and enjoy them all.  This Bert I. Gordon classic features the Once and Future King of B-Movies, John Agar and his terrifying…er…handsome face.  John Hoyt (Enterprise doctor before McCoy) is a super-creeper doll maker bent on dastardly deeds.  And his particular brand of pseudo-science is kind of awesome.  The movie is Bert I. Silly, Bert I. Goofy, Bert I. Fun.

Chung King Express:  “When an apartment cries, it takes a lot to mop it up.”  A young cop who just got dumped is out looking for love.  A coke running femme fatale looking for a place to hide.  A beat cop trying to come to terms with his lady leaving him.  And a music loving young woman (manic pixie dream girl) working at a fast food place.  Relationships, what might have been, what was, and where they’ll eventually take us, for better or for worse.  I don’t always like the style choices in the film.  The weird trailing effects in the opening chase sequence, for example.  But the romance with the Stewardess sequence is really good.  In fact, the whole second half of the movie is excellent.  The music is weird.  The soundtrack features some solid, evocative songs.  But the score reminds me of that electronica jazz from Blade Runner, which feels weird in the 90s (it wasn’t all that normal in the early 80s).  I remember watching this movie years ago with the anticipation that it was going to be some kind of exploitation crime film.  I was sorely disappointed and took 10 years to come back and give it another go.  This second viewing (prompted in part by reading The Film Club a few weeks back) was much more enjoyable and I was in a much better place to see the film.  The sadness of two men in the aftermath of their women bailing.  The tentative steps of reaching out to someone else.  Adorable but painful and awkward fumblings toward connection.  Manic Pixie’s secret housekeeping is totally crazy (TOTALLY CRAZY!!!), yet manages to be extremely cute at the same time.  There is a bit of strong violence in the early part of the film.  But otherwise, it’s a very light, romantic film.

Witches’ Hammer:  Europe’s witch fever is the subject of this Eastern European film from the 60s.  Pretty good production value and a strong cast help.  And the Hammer Horror storyline and semi-exploitative nudity make for entertaining viewing.  But that sick, sexual malediction inflicted on people by their obsessive and oppressive clergy is at the core of the movie.  People sublimating their sexual need with orgies of wrathful violence.  And obviously, the rampant hatred and demonizing of women (can’t talk about Medieval/Renaissance Christians without bringing that up…Oh, how times have changed…Oh, wait!).  Not a great movie, and relentlessly downbeat.  Still, it’s well made.

The Lady from Shanghai:  “Some people can smell danger.  Not me.”  Orson Welles is a poor Irish sap who crosses paths with hokey-smokes hot Rita Hayworth and her google-eyed lawyer husband Everett Sloane.  I’m kind of used to Welles as either a pampered intellectual/artist type or a bloated old beast. 
This weird, in between stage, with him playing something of a badass going to seed is somewhat disconcerting.  But he pulls it off.  Heck, I even forgive him the James Cagney-type Lucky Charms accent.  Welles was a master of portraying the ugliness of human relations, especially among the rich and/or powerful.  This movie is some pretty danged twisted stuff.  Beautifully crafted.  It’s extremely stylized with strange use of rear projection and ADR.  But that help enhance the madness of the tale.

Branded to Kill:  “My hope is to die.”  I’ll admit it.  For quite a while I had no flippin’ idea what was going on in this movie.  Something about hitmen I guess.  One of ‘em is a useless drunk.  They drive around.  I thought with a corpse in the back seat, but it turns out the guy wasn’t dead.  Or there was another guy.  I don’t know.  And I have no idea what happened during the big shoot-out around the 15 minute mark.  The geography of the scene didn’t make any sense I could figure.  And what’s Puffy Cheeks’ deal?  Again.  I don’t know.  He sure likes rice, though.  And sexin’ the ladies.  The sex scenes are pretty weird and wild.  Watching this, I have to wonder, did the Japanese audiences watching it when it hit theaters think it was as crazy as I?  I’m guessing yes.  I’ve seen enough Japanese movies from that time to have a pretty good idea that this would have been strange no matter the viewer’s native tongue/culture.

    “You’re going to fire me at a planet?  That’s your plan?”  I started off the week with the first disk of the new Doctor Who’s seventh season.  The new series is its own monster.  I like it, but it sometimes feels like its emotional extremity is wound up to such a crazy level that it loses its impact.  I salute them for going for it, but occasionally toning it down to 11 might help balance the series out.  I was glad to see the return, in a way, of the Silurians.  They’re one of my favorite, infrequently recurring (sometime) foes.  And hey, Farscape’s Ben Browder shows up as a Western town sheriff.

    Reading a good history book can be thrilling.  Seeing the connections between seemingly unrelated events, piecing together a deeper understanding of places and peoples, how things came about, why some people are famous and remembered, while others languish in obscurity.  History can be amazing.  I’ve developed quite a taste for reading about it.  But it can also become danged depressing.  Seeing all the times the world was on the right track, that things were building to something amazing, only to be dashed by some wave of religious zealotry or ethnically motivated violence (usually both).  It becomes somewhat grim.  Removed from the events by time and with my modern perspective I want to grab these people by their jerkins and shake them until they wake up to the stupidity of what they’re going to do.  Without really noticing it, and because my interests were hopping between different subjects and time periods, over the last couple years I read almost exclusively history, memoir, and philosophy.  I’d moved away from another subject near and dear to my heart, science, specifically technology.  In fact, one of the only science books I’ve read recently was The Greatest Show on Earth, which was an excellent discussion of the up to date understanding of biology.  Not a lot about technology in there, beyond those things that allow us to gain deeper understanding of how biology works.  So, without realizing it, I think I’d put myself into an intellectual funk.  Reading so much history started making me feel bad.  I became so frustrated with humanity and all its many mistakes and stupidities that I was getting pretty blue.  A couple weeks back, I was looking at my book shelves and saw a book I’d picked up a year or so ago, The Vertical Farm.  “I haven’t read a science book in a while,” I thought.  Oh, man.  What a cathartic relief.  I need to remember to throw in something like this every once in a while to balance out my other reading.  A positive, future looking book about things we are doing and can do to improve ourselves and our world.  And a reminder that while there is still plenty of darkness in the world, today really is the best time in this history of humankind.  There has never been a more peaceful, enlightened, connected, free time ever.  Does everyone enjoy it?  No.  But more people do than ever have before.  And it can get better.  Riding that high, I wasn’t ready to come down.  After so many books about various times humanity dropped the ball, I needed a bit more about picking it up and running with it.  So I grabbed another book off the shelf, The Department of Mad Scientists.  Even better.  A look at some of the amazing strides we’ve made in the last 50 years, and hints at some of those on the horizon.  The world has so much potential for getting better and better.  I’m glad I live now, as opposed to before.  But part of me wishes I lived later.  Which I think is why I’ve come to embrace a degree of immortality.  I want to see what comes next, and then, and then.  Where will we be in 50 years, 100 years, 10,000 years?  What will humanity have become?  I want to find out.  And if these DARPA folk and others like them keep pushing boundaries, maybe I’ll live to find out.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (9/30/12-10/6/12)

    Though starting slow, the week built up to HestFest 2012.

Starship Troopers: Invasion:  Look, I hated the original movie.  I hated it for a lot of reasons, and the fact that it was an atrocious adaptation of a good book wasn’t anywhere near close to my biggest problem.  But the CG TV series was shockingly good, even though the animation was pretty primitive.  This, however, is like the worst of the movie, mixed with cut scenes from a Japanese video game.  You know the script is ‘adult’ because they swear a lot and there’s nudity that looks like the animators have only ever seen a naked woman in the pages of Playboy.  It’s not well written, or especially interesting.  The voice acting is very meh.  I wish this was better.  I’d love to see more animated science fiction.  But like so many of these tie-in animated projects, in spite of the work that must have gone into this, it’s lazy.

Resident Evil: Dangnation:  A made-up Eastern European nation is the setting for this CG film based on the venerable, if not always especially good, Resident Evil franchise.  It’s sure a heck of a lot more like the video games than the Milla films.  Is that a good thing?  I don’t know.  I can say that this is a MUCH better movie than the last CG one done a couple years back.  And it has some genuinely cool bits.  When that zombie’s head bursts into a mass of whipping tentacles.  Frickin’ awesome.  The action scenes in the third act are pretty crazy.  It’s OK, and frankly, that’s surpassing expectations.

Looper:  Anyone who ever actually messes with time travel has clearly not watched many movies.  It’s just a bad idea.  It will not go well.  Also, don’t trust mutants.  They’re probably better than you.  Life lessons aside, this was a pretty cool, weird time travel story with some solid performances and lots of cool visuals.  The script is pretty clever, even if a few of the ‘twists’ are pretty obvious.  It kept putting me in mind of the really frickin’ brain breaking novel The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson, which if you value your sanity, you shouldn’t read (but if you’re not a wimp you’ll check out).  If you’re familiar with science fiction or can listen, this shouldn’t be too hard to follow.  People unwilling to pay attention to a movie may experience dizziness.  Everything is spelled out for you pretty clearly.  Definitely one of the better films this year (admittedly, it’s been a bad year) and one I’m sure I’ll enjoy watching again.

Torchlight:  Don’t freebase, man.  Don’t do it.  Especially if a sexy, sweaty Ian McShane (in a bathrobe?) is pushing the pipe in your face.  Steve Railsback LOVES the pipe, but Nancy Drew isn’t into it.  That spells marriage trouble.  This movie sucks.

    On Thursday night, I got an early start on HestFest.

Touch of Evil:  Orson Welles is so mumbly and disgusting as a beast American cop who comes into conflict with an idealist Mexican cop in a sleazy border town.  So many nasty characters do so many bad things.  And it’s all exposed in lurid detail by the mad genius director Welles.  And man, he is not afraid to make himself look so terrifying and so repulsive.  Every time I see this, the attack on Janet Leigh becomes more and more disquieting.  And the blaring music combined with jarring images will rock your socks off.  I’ve seen some folks give Heston guff for playing a Mexican cop, but that doesn’t hold any water with this guy.  First, there are a heck of a lot of Mexicans who are as European in descent as any Chicago born actor.  And secondly, unlike other actors from that era, he doesn’t ham it up, put on a crappy accent, or do any over the top mannerisms.  Died black hair is the extent of it.  Otherwise, it’s a perfectly respectful portrayal of a cop dealing with an international incident.

    On Friday night Brad, Lisa, and I got the festivities started with a double shot.

Gray Lady Down:  A great cast is squandered on a rather boring film.  Tension should be ramping up, but it feels like they keep hitting the snooze button.  Sacrifices are made, but I don’t care.  Triumphs are achieved, but I still don’t care.  The actors all do fine jobs, but blah.

Mother Load:  Heston is the Miner 49er, drawling out a wonky Scottish brogue while two young folk look for their lost friend in the lonely mountains.  Heston directs too, and the movie does look good.  But the two leads (Mancuso and Bassinger) are kinda awful.  To the inexperienced eye, it might appear that Brad and I fell asleep during this movie (Lisa having bailed during the opening) and that it auto-played three or four times while we slept.  This is of course not true, which is why in the morning, we didn’t bother to replay the ending to find out what happened.  We were just concentrating so hard it looked like sleep.

    The main event began Saturday morning.  It was just Brad and I for some time.  Then Lisa joined, and around 6, others began to arrive.  Ben, Sarah, Paul, and Robert helped make for another good night.  Food, drinks, and some more good conversation.  I’ve got to entertain more often.

El Cid:  One of the good ones, this doesn’t suffer from sloppy pacing like Ben Hur, or just straight-up dull scripting and acting like Ten Commandments.  This is one of the better Heston epics.  El Cid is a complicated man, and no one understands him…especially his woman (the fickle shrew Sophia Loren).  Everything he does, he does for the greater good of Spain, and idealized vision of a united and peaceful country (that probably did exist a couple hundred years earlier, but would never exist again).  It was more historically accurate than I expect from Hollywood of that time (or any other).  He isn’t simply portrayed as a Christian warrior bent on driving out the Moors, but as someone willing to work with whoever if it furthered the purpose.  Granted, he’s also shown as much more of a devout idealist than the mercenary he really was.  Still, pretty grand and a very cool ending.

Julius Caesar:  Shakespeare’s play gets a pretty good adaptation, with an excellent cast.  Though Jason Robards does NOT work.  Look, I think Robards is an excellent actor of his type, but his type doesn’t work for Shakespeare.  He’s too low talking, too grumbly, too mumbly, and too deadpan.  Still, Heston and the rest are all great.  Heston’s ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech is badass.  And Robert Vaughn’s cornucopia of facial expressions is worth every penny.

Antony and Cleopatra:  Heston is in the directing chair, as well as one of the titular roles in this follow-up adaptation.  Sadly, unless they simply botched it hard, it seems like this play is one of the Bard’s weaker.  The movie looks great and the cast is top notch.  But it’s dull, dull, dull.  And the last act/post climax seems to go on FOREVER!  I hardly think it would have fixed the film, but apparently Heston wanted Diana Rigg for the role of Cleopatra, and I think that would have made it more watchable at least.

The Omega Man:  HestFest favorite, this pretty terrible adaptation of Richard Mathison’s I Am Legend is also probably my favorite Heston film (though my favorite movie he’s in is probably Planet of the Apes and the best movie he’s in is probably Touch of Evil).  Crazy, crazy music, a bunch of quotable lines, and lots of Heston being awesome.

Planet of the Apes:  “It’s a mad house!  A MAD HOUSE!!!”  One of the best danged movies ever, it starts off as a science fictiony exploration film and becomes a colossal bitch-slap of social commentary about science, religion, the treatment of animals and men, heroism, the human condition, logic, faith and even a little sex.  One of Jerry Goldsmith’s more experimental and extreme scores drives the action as Charlton Heston tries to survive in a world so close to his own, but so alien.  Science fiction allowed writers to talk about things they couldn’t talk about in more typical dramas.  Still does.  And this is one of the best examples of that.

    I watched a few more episodes of The New Avengers.  The show is OK, but lacks something.  I think part of it is Joanna Lumley, who I don’t find attractive (like Steed’s previous partners), and who has a rather drab personality.

    And after much prompting from Brad, I finally started watching season 4 of Fringe.  Good show.  I love how much the cast is able to play with variations on their characters, and how nutty things tend to get without blinking an eye.  The first few episodes, though good, and with some bits of story building, do feel a bit like filler.  One episode could probably have covered all the story arc material.  The rest of it, this late in the game, felt distracting.  I don’t want monster of the week stories this deep in.

    Issue 2 of Archer & Armstrong has more weird cult stuff, a bunch of secret history, and the seeds of some kind of messianic devilry.  Mostly, I’m curious where they’re taking this story.  It feels like it should build to something big and specific.  What will that be?

    Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom’s second issue is more high-flying fun.  Betty is such a bitch, though.  You really have to wonder what Cliff sees in her, or is it just what he sees that’s the issue (‘cause she looks like Betty Page).  She just continually berates him and denigrates everything he loves, and constantly believes he’s cheating on her even though he’s shown no indication of doing so at all, then complains that she might be loosing him.  Ugh.  Otherwise, the insanity of the revealed enemy plans is totally turning things to 11.  Wow.  And the potential for some fun action is certainly there.

    The second issue of Godzilla: Half-Century War annoys me a bit with its stereotypical portrayal of the American general, and his assurance of 100% victory in spite of all evidence.  Still, the arrival of Anguirus, the favorite whipping boy of the Godzilla universe was nice.  Plus, it looks like next month, Smog Monster!!!

    Issues 4&5 of X-O Manowar are more of the same.  The story seems OK, but it’s moving at far too slow a pace for the monthly format.  The brief chapters barely push things forward before ‘next issue…’  And what’s up with Ninjak?  It’s a lame name, and he looks super 90s.  Still, it’s not bad.  And where’s Cary Nord on issue 5?  Has he already left the comic?

    I’m pretty shocked at how much I liked issue 1&2 of Bloodshot.  That was a comic that didn’t look even a little interesting to me in all the previews and write-ups, but it’s actually pretty good.  The titular character has potential to be interesting, and the events circling around him complicated and dangerous.  And it’s SUPER violent, with people getting faces and arms ripped, shot, blown, and punched off.

    Issue 10 of Winter Soldier is mostly about picking up the pieces after a nasty betrayal.  But what worries me is that they seem to be hitting another of those irritating comic ‘reset’ buttons on a character, so all the recent stories about said character (read it; I’m not giving anything away) won’t matter anymore.  My guess is they’re going to take that character in a new direction and don’t want baggage.  Lame.  Issue 11 moves on to the chase, as the Winter Soldier hooks up with…Hawkeye (ugh) to try their target.  Is this building to something?  Something that will reflect relationships in a certain popular movie?

    Throwing lots of swearing and sexual references isn’t enough to call your comic ‘adult.’  But that seems to be the case with The Victories issue one.  Nothing especially interesting.  Just a Batman type vigilante in a Gotham type city…with swearing and prison rape.  Not very impressive.

    At Brad’s fevered prompting, I read Wolverine and the X-Men #17.  Doop, huh.  That’s a thing.  I don’t know what the crap is going on in the X-Men universe, but this is one weirdass comic book.  Some special guest stars and a lot of head scratching.  Comics, man.

    Still reading a few issue zeros.  Teen Titans is a line I won’t be reading, but its issue Zero is more of the story of how Tim Drake became Red Robin (later a member of the Teen Titans).  So, it fits more with the whole Batman thing.  It’s OK.  His parents are a little too nice.  OK, a LOT too nice.

    Issue zero of The Flash is…well, it’s The Flash.  Like Green Arrow, this is a character that has never, even for a moment made me care.  I mean, I liked the TV show, but mostly because I had a crush on the lead actress (from her time on Max Headroom…and yes, in Leviathan).  OK, he’s fast.  But with a seemingly pathetic and lame rogues gallery, not much in the way of interesting background, and a pretty wooden personality, Barry Allan, the Fastest Man Alive is trapped in the amber of disinterest.

    Superman issue zero is more ‘back on Krypton’ with Jor-El trying to wake people up to the end of the world, and being thwarted by some kind of doomsday cult.  And then there’s some weird monster blowing a horn.  OK.  The art is more manga than I like, though not terrible.  The page layout is sometimes interesting and creative, but occasionally too clever for its own good, so it’s hard to follow.  But the coloring is really pretty.  Some of the better I’ve seen in a while.  Overall…well, I still just don’t care about Superman.

-Matt