"ALTERED STATES" (1981)
WRITTEN BY PADDY CHAYEFSKY
DIRECTED BY KEN RUSSELL
It is overblown, preposterous, downright insane and in many ways, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but even so, that is the raison d'etre with the films of the late Ken Russell and this movie in particular worked me over.
William Hurt, in his film debut, takes what is essentially an impossible
role and hits a home run as the profoundly intense, wholly narcissistic
and oddly wide-eyed abnormal psychologist Edward Jessup who embarks
upon a harrowing, kaleidoscopic odyssey in his pursuit of the truth
behind additional states of consciousness and their reality compared
with our waking states. Utilizing sensory deprivation tanks combined
with all manner of hallucinogenics, Jessup bends his brain and soul
inside and out and sideways and back again as regresses his physical
body to the age of primates and even all the way to the original cell
and ultimately, consciousness itself before returning to his physical
forms over and again, thus increasing his sense of madness.
In bravura sequences which push sound and vision to the absolute brink, Russell unleashed his maniacal imagination and invention with a collage of imagery specifically designed to disturb, illuminate, envelop, engulf, and just plain fry your senses completely. Every moment in the film is over the top and I appreciated the madman confidence Russell displayed with his aesthetic as the man just NEVER BLINKED when pouring his dark ideas onto celluloid--and for that matter, William Hurt was brilliant as he took that creative leap with Russell with the same ravenous abandon as he tears through his mountains of dialogue as if he won the acting jackpot.
Blair Brown, who portrays biological anthropologist and Jessup's beleaguered wife Emily, is William Hurt undeniable equal who performs with the same abandon and in doing so, gives the film its primal soul as "Altered States" is indeed a surprisingly effective and wrenching love story that will indeed bash you around and have you climbing the walls.
Trust me...A-Ha's classic "Take On Me" music video would not exist without this film.
DAY 22
"Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN" (2001)
WRITTEN BY ALFONSO CUARON & CARLOS CUARON
DIRECTED BY ALFONSO CUARON
I am unable to express to you what it feels like to regard the film work of a creative artist for t he very first time--an introduction to a new best friend that you never knew existed. For me, with the arrival of this film, Alfonso Cuaron became one of those priceless and best new cinematic friends.
In bravura sequences which push sound and vision to the absolute brink, Russell unleashed his maniacal imagination and invention with a collage of imagery specifically designed to disturb, illuminate, envelop, engulf, and just plain fry your senses completely. Every moment in the film is over the top and I appreciated the madman confidence Russell displayed with his aesthetic as the man just NEVER BLINKED when pouring his dark ideas onto celluloid--and for that matter, William Hurt was brilliant as he took that creative leap with Russell with the same ravenous abandon as he tears through his mountains of dialogue as if he won the acting jackpot.
Blair Brown, who portrays biological anthropologist and Jessup's beleaguered wife Emily, is William Hurt undeniable equal who performs with the same abandon and in doing so, gives the film its primal soul as "Altered States" is indeed a surprisingly effective and wrenching love story that will indeed bash you around and have you climbing the walls.
Trust me...A-Ha's classic "Take On Me" music video would not exist without this film.
"Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN" (2001)
WRITTEN BY ALFONSO CUARON & CARLOS CUARON
DIRECTED BY ALFONSO CUARON
I am unable to express to you what it feels like to regard the film work of a creative artist for t he very first time--an introduction to a new best friend that you never knew existed. For me, with the arrival of this film, Alfonso Cuaron became one of those priceless and best new cinematic friends.
For a
film career that has proven itself to be as inventively surprising and
audacious as Cuaron's, who has somehow leapt from "Harry Potter and the
Prisoner Of Azkaban" (2004), "Children Of Men" (2006), and "Gravity"
(2013), this particularly grounded, unapologetically authentic,
majestically existential road movie covered a dual coming of age/end of
adolescence story between two best friends (played by Gael Garcia
Bernal and Diego Luna, respectively) who convince a woman in her late
twenties (played by Maribel Verdu) to accompany them to an invented
secluded beach called "Heaven's Mouth."
As the trio travel and explore themselves and each other through the road, copious sexual activity and drug usage, an omnipresent narrator provides a broad juxtaposition via audible signposts concerning the social/political realities and history of Mexican history and its precarious present day, especially in its rural, more desperate areas
While the frank sexuality of the film was so bold and explicit that it nearly felt to be something that no audiences should be watching, especially together in a crowded movie theater, it was never gratuitous to me and completely served Curaon's vision, which delivered a clash of the trio's frivolity to the harsher Mexican realities so vividly and poetically that when all of the themes and emotions converged, we were as forever changed as the two teenage boys, whose romp eventually unveiled truths that neither of them were ready to engage themselves with.
Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" was a markedly riveting, rapturous and beautifully ruminating experience that utilized its almost documentary styled filmmaking aesthetic to explore the life and existence of a landscape and its people with supreme artistry in a fashion unlike any I had seen before or since.
DAY 23
"RUN LOLA RUN" (1998)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY TOM TYKWER
Electric. Kinetic. Frenetic. Fantastic.
As the trio travel and explore themselves and each other through the road, copious sexual activity and drug usage, an omnipresent narrator provides a broad juxtaposition via audible signposts concerning the social/political realities and history of Mexican history and its precarious present day, especially in its rural, more desperate areas
While the frank sexuality of the film was so bold and explicit that it nearly felt to be something that no audiences should be watching, especially together in a crowded movie theater, it was never gratuitous to me and completely served Curaon's vision, which delivered a clash of the trio's frivolity to the harsher Mexican realities so vividly and poetically that when all of the themes and emotions converged, we were as forever changed as the two teenage boys, whose romp eventually unveiled truths that neither of them were ready to engage themselves with.
Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" was a markedly riveting, rapturous and beautifully ruminating experience that utilized its almost documentary styled filmmaking aesthetic to explore the life and existence of a landscape and its people with supreme artistry in a fashion unlike any I had seen before or since.
"RUN LOLA RUN" (1998)
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY TOM TYKWER
Electric. Kinetic. Frenetic. Fantastic.
Starring a performance of pure dynamite and superlative athleticism by
Franka Potente as the titular Lola, "Run Lola Run" is a furiously paced
80 minute thriller that is propelled by its adrenaline as much as it is
by its own sense of existentialism.
The story of Lola who has a mere 20 minutes to obtain 10,000 Deutsche Mark to save her boyfriend's life knocked me sideways as Tykwer fueled his film with relentless energy, stunning cinematography, a pulsating electronic soundtrack and most importantly, rich characters and a love story that was worth rooting for in a film that would have otherwise existed as nothing more than an exercise in empty style.
In its own bizarre way, the film could be viewed as a double feature with Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" (1993), as Tykwer almost frames his film in a video game aesthetic, where our Lola tries, fails and ultimately, possesses three attempts to save her boyfriend's life...essentially, possesses three attempts to make her life into the success that she desires.
Unpretentious yet not brainless, "Run Lola Run" is passionately exhilarating filmmaking that I firmly believe could attract those who are either skeptical, wary or challenged by the prospect of viewing a foreign film with something that is more than accessible without sacrificing any stitch of its unquestionable artistry.
DAY 24
"POLTERGEIST" (1982)
STORY BY STEVEN SPIELBERG
SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY STEVEN SPIELBERG & MICHAEL GRAIS & MARK VICTOR
DIRECTED BY TOBE HOOPER
To date, this is the most terrifying film I have ever seen and furthermore, it remains a personal touchstone for how the movies can have the power to shake you to your core and for me, "Poltergeist" was a freight train.
I saw this film just one week after seeing Steven Spielberg's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and as I was a Spielberg devotee by this point, there was no way that I would miss this. So, my Mom and I ventured to the Ford City movie theater complex one afternoon to view his latest effort, inexplicably sharing the theater with a school summer camp group!
There was nothing cute or cuddly about "Poltergeist" whatsoever. In fact, I have long thought of this film as being the dark side of Spielberg's "E.T." and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" (1977), where the other-worldly beings were not here to communicate and forge connections, These other-worldy beings were here to tear us apart and via the most seemingly innocuous portals, in this case, a television, of which this film also served as a blistering satire against our cultural devotion to "the idiot box."
First and foremost, what Spielberg (who has been long acknowledged as having..ahem...ghost directed the film himself rather than the credited Tobe Hooper) accomplished was genius as he utilized his then consistent theme of ordinary suburban people, this time portrayed by Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams, who are faced with extraordinary circumstances and merged that concept with an exploration of the classic childhood fears and terrors and made them horrifically and violently explicit. The monster in the closet was real and wanted to whisk you to a netherworld. The ancient tree in the backyard wanted to eat you alive while that toy clown in the corner really did move about the room in the dark of night laying in wait to lash out and strangle you.
The intensity of the film felt like an on-coming thunderstorm that once unleashed, moved with the punishing force of an F5 tornado as the desperation of the poor Freeling family attempting to rescue their darling 5 year old Carol Anne (the late Heather O'Rourke) from the evil spirits that have stolen her was more than palpable and the innovative special effects, powerful sound design and brutal set pieces, including the pull out the stops grand finale featuring an orchestra of screams, an army of rising skeletons and the outstanding image of the house imploding itself back into the netherworld made the resulting experience feel like a full two-hour length version of the opening of the Ark sequence in Spielberg's "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" released just the previous year.
I was WORKED OVER!!!! Even my Mom, who is not nearly as interested in film as I have been, STILL references this movie as a barometer of measuring intensity and terror. But that afternoon, when I returned home, thanking the universe that the world was the same as it was before I ventured into the theater, I wasn't taking any chances. The television remote NEVER left my side. I kept my closets open and I even investigated the pine trees in my backyard.
Even writing about this film at this moment is taking me back to that summer afternoon and trust me, the chills I am feeling running up and down my spine are as real as they ever were.
DAY 25
"THELMA AND LOUISE" (1991)
WRITTEN BY CALLIE KHOURI
DIRECTED BY RIDLEY SCOTT
The film's trailers did not do this film justice whatsoever...but they did intrigue me.
During my college years at the University Of Wisconsin-madison, I often saw movies at University Square 4, a now long defunct 4 screen multiplex that was housed in the heart of the campus. The movies were cheap, thanks to a student ID, and I went constantly, seeing all manner of movies, with wildly varying degrees of quality and I loved having this place to go whenever I wished. It was truly one of my many haunts.
Anyhow, since I saw so many movies, I saw the same trailers just as constantly and the one for this film was not one that really encouraged me to race right out once it was released. Frankly, it didn't explain terribly much (which was fine) but it also just looked...oh well...stupid. Just two women frolicking around in a car, giggling and carrying on and it just looked as if there was nothing holding the proceedings together. But then, there was the intriguing piece when the trailer's omniscient narrator said gravely, "Thelma and Louise are going to catch HELL." So...what happens to them, huh?
That question lingered long and persistently enough to get me to University Square 4, a few scant weeks after I had graduated and officially began my life in Madison, and I saw the film opening day. Nothing prepared me for what I ultimately experienced.
Ridley Scott's "Thelma and Louise" starred Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in outstanding performances as the titular characters, best friends simply planning a weekend getaway at a fishing cabin who unexpectedly find themselves as fugitives after Louise, also unexpectedly, murders a man who begins to rape Thelma in the parking lot of a roadhouse bar.
Fueled by a brilliantly blistering, righteously ferocious, defiantly angry screenplay by Callie Khouri, "Thelma and Louise" served a vibrant hybrid of the road epic/action thriller/social satire and unrepentantly feminist manifesto that was uncompromising in its worldview, which took a genre conceit and presented a rightfully viscious exploration of the existence of women in a man's world.
With its female characters as the film's engine and soul and barely any redeemable male characters to speak of, the film was a vision of which I had never seen before, while delivering a story that was entirely unpredictable, completely engaging and deeply existential as we are witness to a certain awakening within both women as they fully decide upon what sort of individuals they wish to be and become in a world that would discard of them in an instant, from bad marriages to an indifferent and inconsequential justice system that would undoubtedly cast long shadows of disbelief combined with an obscene lack of compassion and empathy.
As the film continued and Thelma and Louise's predicament grew increasingly and simultaneously dire and, again, awakening, I openly wondered to myself just how the film could possibly end as there was no conceivable way, in my mind, that they could each either return home or even allow themselves to get arrested.
And when the full realization of the film's shattering conclusion became apparent, the devastation and deliverance was propulsive, making it, as far as I am concerned, one of the very best films of the 1990's.
DAY 26
"AFTER HOURS" (1985)
WRITTEN BY JOSEPH MINION
DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE
For all of the rightful acclaim that Martin Scorsese has received throughout his illustrious career for films such as "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Raging Bull' (1980) and "Goodfellas" (1990), for instance, the breadth and depth of his filmography is truly one of the fin est in American cinema where even the lesser know features provide the highest of quality and artistry. And for me, a "smaller" film entitled "After Hours" remains one of my personal Scorsese favorites (and for those of you from my Lab School days, in many ways this movie really inspired the ideas behind my high school film "Life In One Day").
DAY 27
"THE MUPPET MOVIE" (1979)
WRITTEN BY JACK BURNS & JERRY JUHL
PRODUCED BY JIM HENSON
DIRECTED BY JAMES FRAWLEY
I am not sure if this would sound remotely odd to those of you who just were not in the world back in 1979 but the release of the Muppets' very first film was indeed a pop cultural milestone, the likes of which inspired lines wrapped around the movie theater, and delivered eye popping cinematic dreams to behold.
Those very long lines did indeed wrap themselves around the River Oaks theater when my family and I saw the film on opening weekend when I was 10 years old and much like "Star Wars," which I had seen two years prior and "The Blues Brothers," which I would see one year in the future, "The Muppet Movie" was a jaw dropping experience that truly enlivened my spirit while also giving me a surprisingly riveting tale to find myself lost in...truly a testament to the sheer wizardry of the late Jim Henson, Frank Oz and their outstanding collaborators.
Essentially an origin story, "The Muppet Movie" spins the yarn of our hero Kermit the frog, who after being witnessed playing the banjo while crooning "The Rainbow Connection" in the Okefenoke swamp, sets upon a cross country trek to Hollywood with the idea of "making people happy" with is talents. Along the way, he meets up with our beloved characters of Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rowlf the dog, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band and even more.
Now all of this was well and good, especially with first class songs co-composed by Paul Williams yet what made it a cinematic experience is that we were given sights that were then previously unseen and even conceived of as we not only saw our Muppet characters in their full bodies and not always just from the waist up, they rode bicycles and they drove cars!!!! Those sights were undeniably marvelous and when combined with a cavalcade of guest star cameos (from Steve Martin, Milton Berle, Richard Pryor to even Big Bird) plus all manner of plays on words, puns, and a healthy dose of surreal, meta, and self-reflexive humor (at one point, Dr. Teeth appears at a crucial section just because he read the film's script in advance) that allowed the film to work as its own story while always being aware of itself as being a film.
Yet, there is this part of me that truly feels that this same film could not be made the same way in 2018 as "The Muppet Movie" is also a surprisingly tense and often harrowing film as Kermit and his friends are being relentlessly pursued by entrepreneur Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), who wants Kermit to be his advertising spokes-frog for his frog leg restaurants. While Kermit keeps refusing, Doc Hopper grows angrier and then decided to hunt Kermit down and kill him, at one point hiring a mad scientist (Mel Brooks) to fry his brains and later, employing a gun toting assassin!!
I remember feeling extremely upon edge as I watched and even now as I remember, I can distinctly recall being worried that Kermit would die--even knowing that no only would that not happen but also that Kermit was a puppet. But even so...Kermit the frog was (and remains) as real as you or I and how could ANYONE wish to hurt him let alone hunt him down like that?
For our sensitive 21st century audiences, something like that wouldn't fly at all (even as those same audiences would take their precious three year old to every PG 13 rated Marvel and "Star Wars" entry). Regardless, even as intense as it was, the entire film was a gem of movie magic presented on a level that even Henson and his crew rarely achieved in quite the same way again.
DAY 28
"THE ROAD WARRIOR" (U.K. RELEASE 1981--U.S. RELEASE 1982)
WRITTEN BY TERRY HAYES & GEORGE MILLER & BRIAN HANNAT
DIRECTED BY GEORGE MILLER
it was not uncommon for me to be late arriving to movies when my parents and I went to the theaters.
Yes, I just agonized over their e very slow movement, wondering just why we could not just get going so we wouldn't be late. (Ever since, I have been notoriously early for movies). Anyhow, what would typically happen is that we would walk into the movies already screening, watch the film and then wait for the next showing to see the beginning and then leave. This was the case for George Miller's "The Road Warrior," my introduction to the character of Mad Max, yet the film was the second installment in the series. Upon arriving, we missed, perhaps, the film's first 10 minutes. When we stayed in the theater until the next showing to see the beginning, we ended up staying through the entire film all over again. Many years later, I asked my Dad why we stayed to watch the whole film again (mostly because I was certain my parents hated every single minute of it). He answered, "I couldn't believe what I saw and I just had to sit there and to confirm that I really did see THAT!"
Amen to that!
George Miller's "The Road Warrior" remains one of the most ruthlessly intense, unbelievably inventive, brutally imaginative and downright grisly yet undeniably breathless action films that I have ever seen. With just a scant amount of dialogue and barely there plot and characterizations, Miller's post-apocalyptic future vision in which Mel Gibson starred as Mad Max, the loner, nomadic former cop trying to desperately survive in the desolate and ultimately lawless Australian desert with all manner of ultra-violent freaks, scavengers, scoundrels, helpless settlers and other ferocious walking nightmares.
The prized possession is oil and the acerbic Max attempts to help a band of aforementioned settlers protect their fuel from the psychotic gang known as The Marauders, led by the disfigured and masked Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) with his chief henchman, the horrific, viciously unhinged, leather clad, mohawk coiffed Wez (Vernon Wells)--truly one of the greatest, and most terrifying movie villains I have ever witnessed.
Miller delivered an experience that was simultaneously white knuckled and two fisted, possessed with a level of unmerciful yet never gratuitous violence that often had me shield my eyes. Yet, the real draw of the film was the epic car chase starring Max, the settles, the Marauders and even The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) flying above the melee all of which was presented with a blistering choreography and brutality that made you hold onto the theater seats in front of you for fear you would be spun out of your own seats.
It was unlike anything I had ever seen, and as unrepentant as it was, it was also fantastic, dynamic, and often exhilarating--the greatness on screen could not be denied in any conceivable way, even as ugly as so much of it was. The sheer adrenaline and bottomless aggression ruled the day and then some with Miller's cinematic genius with action and the building of a new cinematic world.
"White line nightmare," indeed!!!
DAY 29
"NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE" (1978)
WRITTEN BY HAROLD RAMIS, DOUGLAS KENNEDY & CHRIS MILLER
DIRECTED BY JOHN LANDIS
It was the very first R rated movie that I had seen. I was 9 years old.
Yup, I did indeed see this film at the age of 9 after tremendously wearing my parents DOWN as I just had this need to see John Belushi in a movie and that some of my friends from school had already seen R rated movies (whether that was true or not, who knows...but I had to use whatever wills I could). Anyhow, once I was in that that theater, seeing the film, which by that point had already amassed a fortune at the box office and was going through a re-release period, I absolutely loved the sheer anarchy of the film, the wild abandon, and being surrounded by the constant, enormous laughter in that audience--even if 90% of the jokes sailed over my head. Afterwards, my Dad pulled me aside and said, "OK...that was pretty funny...BUT...NO M ORE R rated movies for quite some time."
That was fine with me for this one was entirely worth it.
To this day, "National Lampoon's Animal House" remains my #1 favorite comedy. Tremendously well written, exceedingly well directed by the masterful John Landis and cast from top to bottom with absolute, pristine perfection, this film not only perfectly satirized the more innocent early 1960's tone as witnessed in George Lucas' iconic "American Graffiti" (1973), it gave birth to the cheerfully vulgar, happily politically incorrect R rated comedy whose massive cinematic shadow still looms largely as no film, as far as I am concerned, has quite matched what this film achieved in quite the same way. It was as if ALL of the stars aligned perfectly to create move magic.
The saga of the members of the slobbish Delta House and their constant war against the campus elite plus the tyrannical Dear Wormer (John Vernon) made for one brilliant set piece and sequence after another as it was populated with a collective of brilliantly memorable characters with those oddball names (Tim Matheson as the Delta playboy Otter, Peter Reigert as the sly Boon and the late Stephen Furst as the hapless Flounder are standouts in the untouchable cast), propelled by Landis' endlessly inventive and manic comedic energy and armed with the equally iconic dialogue that has cemented itself within our pop culture lexicon. My word, even the sound of breaking glass never sounded so...PERFECT in its anarchistic glory.
The toga party. Otis Day and the Knights. The horse! The destructive comedic fury of the climax plus the "Where Are They Now?" captions. I could go on and on, huge moments and small. But man...there's John Belushi as Bluto Blutarsky, unquestionably the Id of the entire film and for a role that doesn't carry that much screen time and for a character who doesn't even have that many lines (save for his epic call to arms late in the film), Belushi was a MASTER as even a twitch of one eyebrow could slay you!
It has been sad that for some things, it is never as good as the first time. And the case of this film, that sentiment holds very true to me. "National Lampoon's Animal House" was crude, nasty, filthy, and often just plain wrong and yet it was a work of complete GENIUS!!
DAY 30
"THE WIZ" (1978)
Based upon the original play Libretto by William F. Brown
Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls
SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY JOEL SCHUMACHER
DIRECTED BY SIDNEY LUMET
For this final installment of this series, I turn to a childhood staple that has actually increased in its transcendent power over the years, the film adaptation of of hit Broadway play, itself an adaptation of the original 1939 classic "The Wizard Of Oz" and of course the book series created by L. Frank Baum.
Adaptations and remakes are indeed tricky prospects as the purpose beyond lucrative sometimes is difficult to realize. Yet, then again, should the Shakespeare plays have only been performed once? In the case of "The Wiz," Director Sidney Lumet's film version of the entirely African-American presentation of the iconic fantasy was, and remains, an undisputed triumph of imagination, inventiveness, as well as social commentary and racial uplift and ascension. There truly has not been a film quite of this sort before or since and its endurance as a pop cultural touchstone within the Black community is powerful, to say the least.
Transplanting the tale from the rural farms of Kansas to the urban setting of Harlem, Diana Ross stars as Dorothy, a 24 year old schoolteacher, profoundly introverted and frightened of taking the steps to fulfill her adult independence. Instead of a tornado, Dorothy and her dog Toto get caught in a snowstorm that whisks her to the Land of Oz, which is envisioned as a darkly surreal and wholly complete re-imagining of New York City.
Upon her journey to find the Wiz (Richard Pryor) so she can return home, via the Yellow Brick Road, she is accompanied by the quotation reading Scarecrow (an effective Michael Jackson in his one and only feature film performance), the Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) and the cowardly Lion (Ted Ross), as they each wish for brains, a heart and courage,respectively. But for their wishes to be granted, they must first kill the terrifying Evilene, the Wicked Witch of the West (Mabel King).
To view this film in 2018, especially within our CGI drenched era, "The Wiz" is a brilliant testament to the powers of set design, costume design, and handmade special effects as the film is a visual splendor, revealing subtle nuances (a walking microphone serves as a quick throwaway joke) and grand sights from the playful to even the nightmarish (the subway sequence where Dorothy and her friends are threatened by sinister street peddlers, walking pillars ready to crush and trash cans with sharp teeth still sends a grotesque chill up my spine) from beginning to end.
To that end, even the most familiar elements to the story have been altered to great effect from Dorothy's ruby slippers now silver to even the Flying Monkeys, now mutant creatures riding flashy, relentlessly pursuing motorcycles, to Evilene's massive throne, itself a giant toilet. If one is to perform a remake, then here is the best way to achieve that goal, by keeping the core while rigorously figuring out how and what to alter to make the proceedings stand on their own, while also honoring the source material.
As a musical, "The Wiz" is first rate, especially with new arrangements, orchestrations and production by Quincy Jones, making the songs more unforgettable than they already were. And for Diana Ross, who elicits a performance that borders on near hysteria (and rightfully so, as the film plays out like a fever dream within her mind), her delivery of "Home," the film's finale is a GRAND SLAM as she sings that song as if it is the final song she will sing in her life. It is shattering to behold.
But over the years, something dawned on me...or better yet, within me as I happened upon it one evening after not having seen the film in perhaps 20 plus years. "The Wiz" is no mere "remake." This film is an exploration of the Black experience in America and our continuous struggles with the reconstruction of our collective spirits post slavery.
For what else is "The Wiz" but a film that extols passionately to Black viewers that we are a powerful, regal, beautiful people and we ALL have brains, we ALL have hearts and we ALL have courage and we are ALL, in our own individualistic ways, attempting to find our ways back home, whatever that may mean to each one of us.
Just think of it when you watch the astonishing sequence set after Evilene's destruction and her mutated minions all unleash themselves from their grotesque bodies to reveal the forms of mighty, beautiful Black men and women all dancing to the euphoria of "Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day."
"The Wiz" endures because it is a film all about us, every generation, every single day and especially now as political elements in this nation still wish to dehumanize us, subjugate us and murder us without retribution. But all we have to do is to keep easing down that road with our brains, hearts and courage intact, and in doing so, we will always find our way back home.
There you have it. Might there be a sequel to this series? Wait and see...
The story of Lola who has a mere 20 minutes to obtain 10,000 Deutsche Mark to save her boyfriend's life knocked me sideways as Tykwer fueled his film with relentless energy, stunning cinematography, a pulsating electronic soundtrack and most importantly, rich characters and a love story that was worth rooting for in a film that would have otherwise existed as nothing more than an exercise in empty style.
In its own bizarre way, the film could be viewed as a double feature with Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" (1993), as Tykwer almost frames his film in a video game aesthetic, where our Lola tries, fails and ultimately, possesses three attempts to save her boyfriend's life...essentially, possesses three attempts to make her life into the success that she desires.
Unpretentious yet not brainless, "Run Lola Run" is passionately exhilarating filmmaking that I firmly believe could attract those who are either skeptical, wary or challenged by the prospect of viewing a foreign film with something that is more than accessible without sacrificing any stitch of its unquestionable artistry.
"POLTERGEIST" (1982)
STORY BY STEVEN SPIELBERG
SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY STEVEN SPIELBERG & MICHAEL GRAIS & MARK VICTOR
DIRECTED BY TOBE HOOPER
To date, this is the most terrifying film I have ever seen and furthermore, it remains a personal touchstone for how the movies can have the power to shake you to your core and for me, "Poltergeist" was a freight train.
I saw this film just one week after seeing Steven Spielberg's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and as I was a Spielberg devotee by this point, there was no way that I would miss this. So, my Mom and I ventured to the Ford City movie theater complex one afternoon to view his latest effort, inexplicably sharing the theater with a school summer camp group!
There was nothing cute or cuddly about "Poltergeist" whatsoever. In fact, I have long thought of this film as being the dark side of Spielberg's "E.T." and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" (1977), where the other-worldly beings were not here to communicate and forge connections, These other-worldy beings were here to tear us apart and via the most seemingly innocuous portals, in this case, a television, of which this film also served as a blistering satire against our cultural devotion to "the idiot box."
First and foremost, what Spielberg (who has been long acknowledged as having..ahem...ghost directed the film himself rather than the credited Tobe Hooper) accomplished was genius as he utilized his then consistent theme of ordinary suburban people, this time portrayed by Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams, who are faced with extraordinary circumstances and merged that concept with an exploration of the classic childhood fears and terrors and made them horrifically and violently explicit. The monster in the closet was real and wanted to whisk you to a netherworld. The ancient tree in the backyard wanted to eat you alive while that toy clown in the corner really did move about the room in the dark of night laying in wait to lash out and strangle you.
The intensity of the film felt like an on-coming thunderstorm that once unleashed, moved with the punishing force of an F5 tornado as the desperation of the poor Freeling family attempting to rescue their darling 5 year old Carol Anne (the late Heather O'Rourke) from the evil spirits that have stolen her was more than palpable and the innovative special effects, powerful sound design and brutal set pieces, including the pull out the stops grand finale featuring an orchestra of screams, an army of rising skeletons and the outstanding image of the house imploding itself back into the netherworld made the resulting experience feel like a full two-hour length version of the opening of the Ark sequence in Spielberg's "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" released just the previous year.
I was WORKED OVER!!!! Even my Mom, who is not nearly as interested in film as I have been, STILL references this movie as a barometer of measuring intensity and terror. But that afternoon, when I returned home, thanking the universe that the world was the same as it was before I ventured into the theater, I wasn't taking any chances. The television remote NEVER left my side. I kept my closets open and I even investigated the pine trees in my backyard.
Even writing about this film at this moment is taking me back to that summer afternoon and trust me, the chills I am feeling running up and down my spine are as real as they ever were.
"THELMA AND LOUISE" (1991)
WRITTEN BY CALLIE KHOURI
DIRECTED BY RIDLEY SCOTT
The film's trailers did not do this film justice whatsoever...but they did intrigue me.
During my college years at the University Of Wisconsin-madison, I often saw movies at University Square 4, a now long defunct 4 screen multiplex that was housed in the heart of the campus. The movies were cheap, thanks to a student ID, and I went constantly, seeing all manner of movies, with wildly varying degrees of quality and I loved having this place to go whenever I wished. It was truly one of my many haunts.
Anyhow, since I saw so many movies, I saw the same trailers just as constantly and the one for this film was not one that really encouraged me to race right out once it was released. Frankly, it didn't explain terribly much (which was fine) but it also just looked...oh well...stupid. Just two women frolicking around in a car, giggling and carrying on and it just looked as if there was nothing holding the proceedings together. But then, there was the intriguing piece when the trailer's omniscient narrator said gravely, "Thelma and Louise are going to catch HELL." So...what happens to them, huh?
That question lingered long and persistently enough to get me to University Square 4, a few scant weeks after I had graduated and officially began my life in Madison, and I saw the film opening day. Nothing prepared me for what I ultimately experienced.
Ridley Scott's "Thelma and Louise" starred Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in outstanding performances as the titular characters, best friends simply planning a weekend getaway at a fishing cabin who unexpectedly find themselves as fugitives after Louise, also unexpectedly, murders a man who begins to rape Thelma in the parking lot of a roadhouse bar.
Fueled by a brilliantly blistering, righteously ferocious, defiantly angry screenplay by Callie Khouri, "Thelma and Louise" served a vibrant hybrid of the road epic/action thriller/social satire and unrepentantly feminist manifesto that was uncompromising in its worldview, which took a genre conceit and presented a rightfully viscious exploration of the existence of women in a man's world.
With its female characters as the film's engine and soul and barely any redeemable male characters to speak of, the film was a vision of which I had never seen before, while delivering a story that was entirely unpredictable, completely engaging and deeply existential as we are witness to a certain awakening within both women as they fully decide upon what sort of individuals they wish to be and become in a world that would discard of them in an instant, from bad marriages to an indifferent and inconsequential justice system that would undoubtedly cast long shadows of disbelief combined with an obscene lack of compassion and empathy.
As the film continued and Thelma and Louise's predicament grew increasingly and simultaneously dire and, again, awakening, I openly wondered to myself just how the film could possibly end as there was no conceivable way, in my mind, that they could each either return home or even allow themselves to get arrested.
And when the full realization of the film's shattering conclusion became apparent, the devastation and deliverance was propulsive, making it, as far as I am concerned, one of the very best films of the 1990's.
"AFTER HOURS" (1985)
WRITTEN BY JOSEPH MINION
DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE
For all of the rightful acclaim that Martin Scorsese has received throughout his illustrious career for films such as "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Raging Bull' (1980) and "Goodfellas" (1990), for instance, the breadth and depth of his filmography is truly one of the fin est in American cinema where even the lesser know features provide the highest of quality and artistry. And for me, a "smaller" film entitled "After Hours" remains one of my personal Scorsese favorites (and for those of you from my Lab School days, in many ways this movie really inspired the ideas behind my high school film "Life In One Day").
"After Hours" stars Griffin Dunne as Paul Hackett, a word processor
leading a humdrum existence in New York when one evening, he meets Marcy
Franklin (Rosanna Arquette) in a cafe, they hit it off and agree to a
date in SoHo, an event that leads to a series of coincidental conflicts,
a cavalcade of eccentric characters and increasingly dire misadventures
that keeps poor Paul stationed in SoHo unable to find his way out. And
yes, it is a comedy.
Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" is a beautifully paced, constructed, and executed film where for a comedy, it amazed me with how intense and frustrating it actually was--almost like a bad dream where you are trying to get to someplace but are unable to move or make any headway. It was as if the area of SoHo served as a character, perhaps like a level of Dante's Inferno, with ominous low level camera angle that showcased the steam rising from the manhole covers suggesting the Hell underneath from which Paul is trying to escape.
Griffin Dunne elicited a masterfully light comedic performance that delivered the proper incredulity, astonishment, fear, and even existential anguish as he existed as the modern day Job enduring one obstacle after another--as if being tested--through no fault of his own. And the cast Scorsese surrounded him with, from the late John Heard as a bartender, as well as the wonderful Teri Garr, Catherine O'Hara and Linda Fiorentino as oddball sirens, to even Cheech and Chong as a pair of philosophical petty thieves all added to the film's dark lunacy.
Much like Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" (1986), "After Hours" is unpredictable, infectious, and compulsively watchable and so rewarding of repeated viewings--which I most certainly did as a teenager.
And oh yes...watch for Scorsese's sinister blink-or-you'll-miss-it cameo in a punk rock nightclub where Paul nearly gets his head shaved!
Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" is a beautifully paced, constructed, and executed film where for a comedy, it amazed me with how intense and frustrating it actually was--almost like a bad dream where you are trying to get to someplace but are unable to move or make any headway. It was as if the area of SoHo served as a character, perhaps like a level of Dante's Inferno, with ominous low level camera angle that showcased the steam rising from the manhole covers suggesting the Hell underneath from which Paul is trying to escape.
Griffin Dunne elicited a masterfully light comedic performance that delivered the proper incredulity, astonishment, fear, and even existential anguish as he existed as the modern day Job enduring one obstacle after another--as if being tested--through no fault of his own. And the cast Scorsese surrounded him with, from the late John Heard as a bartender, as well as the wonderful Teri Garr, Catherine O'Hara and Linda Fiorentino as oddball sirens, to even Cheech and Chong as a pair of philosophical petty thieves all added to the film's dark lunacy.
Much like Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" (1986), "After Hours" is unpredictable, infectious, and compulsively watchable and so rewarding of repeated viewings--which I most certainly did as a teenager.
And oh yes...watch for Scorsese's sinister blink-or-you'll-miss-it cameo in a punk rock nightclub where Paul nearly gets his head shaved!
"THE MUPPET MOVIE" (1979)
WRITTEN BY JACK BURNS & JERRY JUHL
PRODUCED BY JIM HENSON
DIRECTED BY JAMES FRAWLEY
I am not sure if this would sound remotely odd to those of you who just were not in the world back in 1979 but the release of the Muppets' very first film was indeed a pop cultural milestone, the likes of which inspired lines wrapped around the movie theater, and delivered eye popping cinematic dreams to behold.
Those very long lines did indeed wrap themselves around the River Oaks theater when my family and I saw the film on opening weekend when I was 10 years old and much like "Star Wars," which I had seen two years prior and "The Blues Brothers," which I would see one year in the future, "The Muppet Movie" was a jaw dropping experience that truly enlivened my spirit while also giving me a surprisingly riveting tale to find myself lost in...truly a testament to the sheer wizardry of the late Jim Henson, Frank Oz and their outstanding collaborators.
Essentially an origin story, "The Muppet Movie" spins the yarn of our hero Kermit the frog, who after being witnessed playing the banjo while crooning "The Rainbow Connection" in the Okefenoke swamp, sets upon a cross country trek to Hollywood with the idea of "making people happy" with is talents. Along the way, he meets up with our beloved characters of Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rowlf the dog, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band and even more.
Now all of this was well and good, especially with first class songs co-composed by Paul Williams yet what made it a cinematic experience is that we were given sights that were then previously unseen and even conceived of as we not only saw our Muppet characters in their full bodies and not always just from the waist up, they rode bicycles and they drove cars!!!! Those sights were undeniably marvelous and when combined with a cavalcade of guest star cameos (from Steve Martin, Milton Berle, Richard Pryor to even Big Bird) plus all manner of plays on words, puns, and a healthy dose of surreal, meta, and self-reflexive humor (at one point, Dr. Teeth appears at a crucial section just because he read the film's script in advance) that allowed the film to work as its own story while always being aware of itself as being a film.
Yet, there is this part of me that truly feels that this same film could not be made the same way in 2018 as "The Muppet Movie" is also a surprisingly tense and often harrowing film as Kermit and his friends are being relentlessly pursued by entrepreneur Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), who wants Kermit to be his advertising spokes-frog for his frog leg restaurants. While Kermit keeps refusing, Doc Hopper grows angrier and then decided to hunt Kermit down and kill him, at one point hiring a mad scientist (Mel Brooks) to fry his brains and later, employing a gun toting assassin!!
I remember feeling extremely upon edge as I watched and even now as I remember, I can distinctly recall being worried that Kermit would die--even knowing that no only would that not happen but also that Kermit was a puppet. But even so...Kermit the frog was (and remains) as real as you or I and how could ANYONE wish to hurt him let alone hunt him down like that?
For our sensitive 21st century audiences, something like that wouldn't fly at all (even as those same audiences would take their precious three year old to every PG 13 rated Marvel and "Star Wars" entry). Regardless, even as intense as it was, the entire film was a gem of movie magic presented on a level that even Henson and his crew rarely achieved in quite the same way again.
"THE ROAD WARRIOR" (U.K. RELEASE 1981--U.S. RELEASE 1982)
WRITTEN BY TERRY HAYES & GEORGE MILLER & BRIAN HANNAT
DIRECTED BY GEORGE MILLER
it was not uncommon for me to be late arriving to movies when my parents and I went to the theaters.
Yes, I just agonized over their e very slow movement, wondering just why we could not just get going so we wouldn't be late. (Ever since, I have been notoriously early for movies). Anyhow, what would typically happen is that we would walk into the movies already screening, watch the film and then wait for the next showing to see the beginning and then leave. This was the case for George Miller's "The Road Warrior," my introduction to the character of Mad Max, yet the film was the second installment in the series. Upon arriving, we missed, perhaps, the film's first 10 minutes. When we stayed in the theater until the next showing to see the beginning, we ended up staying through the entire film all over again. Many years later, I asked my Dad why we stayed to watch the whole film again (mostly because I was certain my parents hated every single minute of it). He answered, "I couldn't believe what I saw and I just had to sit there and to confirm that I really did see THAT!"
Amen to that!
George Miller's "The Road Warrior" remains one of the most ruthlessly intense, unbelievably inventive, brutally imaginative and downright grisly yet undeniably breathless action films that I have ever seen. With just a scant amount of dialogue and barely there plot and characterizations, Miller's post-apocalyptic future vision in which Mel Gibson starred as Mad Max, the loner, nomadic former cop trying to desperately survive in the desolate and ultimately lawless Australian desert with all manner of ultra-violent freaks, scavengers, scoundrels, helpless settlers and other ferocious walking nightmares.
The prized possession is oil and the acerbic Max attempts to help a band of aforementioned settlers protect their fuel from the psychotic gang known as The Marauders, led by the disfigured and masked Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) with his chief henchman, the horrific, viciously unhinged, leather clad, mohawk coiffed Wez (Vernon Wells)--truly one of the greatest, and most terrifying movie villains I have ever witnessed.
Miller delivered an experience that was simultaneously white knuckled and two fisted, possessed with a level of unmerciful yet never gratuitous violence that often had me shield my eyes. Yet, the real draw of the film was the epic car chase starring Max, the settles, the Marauders and even The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) flying above the melee all of which was presented with a blistering choreography and brutality that made you hold onto the theater seats in front of you for fear you would be spun out of your own seats.
It was unlike anything I had ever seen, and as unrepentant as it was, it was also fantastic, dynamic, and often exhilarating--the greatness on screen could not be denied in any conceivable way, even as ugly as so much of it was. The sheer adrenaline and bottomless aggression ruled the day and then some with Miller's cinematic genius with action and the building of a new cinematic world.
"White line nightmare," indeed!!!
"NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE" (1978)
WRITTEN BY HAROLD RAMIS, DOUGLAS KENNEDY & CHRIS MILLER
DIRECTED BY JOHN LANDIS
It was the very first R rated movie that I had seen. I was 9 years old.
Yup, I did indeed see this film at the age of 9 after tremendously wearing my parents DOWN as I just had this need to see John Belushi in a movie and that some of my friends from school had already seen R rated movies (whether that was true or not, who knows...but I had to use whatever wills I could). Anyhow, once I was in that that theater, seeing the film, which by that point had already amassed a fortune at the box office and was going through a re-release period, I absolutely loved the sheer anarchy of the film, the wild abandon, and being surrounded by the constant, enormous laughter in that audience--even if 90% of the jokes sailed over my head. Afterwards, my Dad pulled me aside and said, "OK...that was pretty funny...BUT...NO M ORE R rated movies for quite some time."
That was fine with me for this one was entirely worth it.
To this day, "National Lampoon's Animal House" remains my #1 favorite comedy. Tremendously well written, exceedingly well directed by the masterful John Landis and cast from top to bottom with absolute, pristine perfection, this film not only perfectly satirized the more innocent early 1960's tone as witnessed in George Lucas' iconic "American Graffiti" (1973), it gave birth to the cheerfully vulgar, happily politically incorrect R rated comedy whose massive cinematic shadow still looms largely as no film, as far as I am concerned, has quite matched what this film achieved in quite the same way. It was as if ALL of the stars aligned perfectly to create move magic.
The saga of the members of the slobbish Delta House and their constant war against the campus elite plus the tyrannical Dear Wormer (John Vernon) made for one brilliant set piece and sequence after another as it was populated with a collective of brilliantly memorable characters with those oddball names (Tim Matheson as the Delta playboy Otter, Peter Reigert as the sly Boon and the late Stephen Furst as the hapless Flounder are standouts in the untouchable cast), propelled by Landis' endlessly inventive and manic comedic energy and armed with the equally iconic dialogue that has cemented itself within our pop culture lexicon. My word, even the sound of breaking glass never sounded so...PERFECT in its anarchistic glory.
The toga party. Otis Day and the Knights. The horse! The destructive comedic fury of the climax plus the "Where Are They Now?" captions. I could go on and on, huge moments and small. But man...there's John Belushi as Bluto Blutarsky, unquestionably the Id of the entire film and for a role that doesn't carry that much screen time and for a character who doesn't even have that many lines (save for his epic call to arms late in the film), Belushi was a MASTER as even a twitch of one eyebrow could slay you!
It has been sad that for some things, it is never as good as the first time. And the case of this film, that sentiment holds very true to me. "National Lampoon's Animal House" was crude, nasty, filthy, and often just plain wrong and yet it was a work of complete GENIUS!!
"THE WIZ" (1978)
Based upon the original play Libretto by William F. Brown
Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls
SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY JOEL SCHUMACHER
DIRECTED BY SIDNEY LUMET
For this final installment of this series, I turn to a childhood staple that has actually increased in its transcendent power over the years, the film adaptation of of hit Broadway play, itself an adaptation of the original 1939 classic "The Wizard Of Oz" and of course the book series created by L. Frank Baum.
Adaptations and remakes are indeed tricky prospects as the purpose beyond lucrative sometimes is difficult to realize. Yet, then again, should the Shakespeare plays have only been performed once? In the case of "The Wiz," Director Sidney Lumet's film version of the entirely African-American presentation of the iconic fantasy was, and remains, an undisputed triumph of imagination, inventiveness, as well as social commentary and racial uplift and ascension. There truly has not been a film quite of this sort before or since and its endurance as a pop cultural touchstone within the Black community is powerful, to say the least.
Transplanting the tale from the rural farms of Kansas to the urban setting of Harlem, Diana Ross stars as Dorothy, a 24 year old schoolteacher, profoundly introverted and frightened of taking the steps to fulfill her adult independence. Instead of a tornado, Dorothy and her dog Toto get caught in a snowstorm that whisks her to the Land of Oz, which is envisioned as a darkly surreal and wholly complete re-imagining of New York City.
Upon her journey to find the Wiz (Richard Pryor) so she can return home, via the Yellow Brick Road, she is accompanied by the quotation reading Scarecrow (an effective Michael Jackson in his one and only feature film performance), the Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) and the cowardly Lion (Ted Ross), as they each wish for brains, a heart and courage,respectively. But for their wishes to be granted, they must first kill the terrifying Evilene, the Wicked Witch of the West (Mabel King).
To view this film in 2018, especially within our CGI drenched era, "The Wiz" is a brilliant testament to the powers of set design, costume design, and handmade special effects as the film is a visual splendor, revealing subtle nuances (a walking microphone serves as a quick throwaway joke) and grand sights from the playful to even the nightmarish (the subway sequence where Dorothy and her friends are threatened by sinister street peddlers, walking pillars ready to crush and trash cans with sharp teeth still sends a grotesque chill up my spine) from beginning to end.
To that end, even the most familiar elements to the story have been altered to great effect from Dorothy's ruby slippers now silver to even the Flying Monkeys, now mutant creatures riding flashy, relentlessly pursuing motorcycles, to Evilene's massive throne, itself a giant toilet. If one is to perform a remake, then here is the best way to achieve that goal, by keeping the core while rigorously figuring out how and what to alter to make the proceedings stand on their own, while also honoring the source material.
As a musical, "The Wiz" is first rate, especially with new arrangements, orchestrations and production by Quincy Jones, making the songs more unforgettable than they already were. And for Diana Ross, who elicits a performance that borders on near hysteria (and rightfully so, as the film plays out like a fever dream within her mind), her delivery of "Home," the film's finale is a GRAND SLAM as she sings that song as if it is the final song she will sing in her life. It is shattering to behold.
But over the years, something dawned on me...or better yet, within me as I happened upon it one evening after not having seen the film in perhaps 20 plus years. "The Wiz" is no mere "remake." This film is an exploration of the Black experience in America and our continuous struggles with the reconstruction of our collective spirits post slavery.
For what else is "The Wiz" but a film that extols passionately to Black viewers that we are a powerful, regal, beautiful people and we ALL have brains, we ALL have hearts and we ALL have courage and we are ALL, in our own individualistic ways, attempting to find our ways back home, whatever that may mean to each one of us.
Just think of it when you watch the astonishing sequence set after Evilene's destruction and her mutated minions all unleash themselves from their grotesque bodies to reveal the forms of mighty, beautiful Black men and women all dancing to the euphoria of "Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day."
"The Wiz" endures because it is a film all about us, every generation, every single day and especially now as political elements in this nation still wish to dehumanize us, subjugate us and murder us without retribution. But all we have to do is to keep easing down that road with our brains, hearts and courage intact, and in doing so, we will always find our way back home.
There you have it. Might there be a sequel to this series? Wait and see...
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