Movie reviews (WCBE 90.5 FM), family events, media and literary references, political and philosophical reflections.
April 16, 2007
Excellent, articulate commentaries on:
1. The Dan Imus Controversy and Cultural Biases (FOX News commentary)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266143,00.html
2. Articulate exposition of Bush administration tactics used to prosecute "terrorists"
(The Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0416/p01s03-usju.htm
WCBE 90.5 FM: "Inland Empire," "Perfect Stranger”
It's Movie Time: Written, directed, and produced by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, April 13, 2007
Streaming live on the web and always on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org
John
"Inland Empire" is David Lynching Hollywood again with velvet gloves . .
Clay
"Perfect Stranger” may or may not help Halle Berry and Bruce Willis pay the bills . . .
HIT MUSIC ("STAR WARS THEME"), THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:
Richelle:
"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .
MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT
John
I'm John DeSando . . .
Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe.
John ("Inland Empire")
Clay, returning to themes mined in Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s Inland Empire explores the disjointed world of memory, sex, and celebrity only on Lynch’s fragmented terms where Laura Dern’s film actress and her role converge.
Images clash and merge like memory itself—imperfect and random, dwelling on the ends of experience, either ecstasy or defeat and seldom the softer center.
Clay
I love soft centers.
John
Inland Empire might best be approached like a poorly organized photo album: Although the images evoke the joys of familiarity, even warmth, they cover a world of greed and lust at war with love and happiness.
Clay
Mmmmm, I like that.
John
Empire is a tough three hours but ultimately worthwhile if it only jogs the memory to face the effects of the past and dread of the future.
Clay ("Inland Empire")
Folks, "Inland Empire" IS another journey into dread on a David Lynch's lost highway. Featuring Lynch behind the camera, and Laura Dern out front, Lynch takes full advantage of the new digital technology by gathering in images on the fly, and worrying about how they go together later.
Luckily he has a disciplined eye, a strong sense of mood, and a cast of
actors who know how to exude their on-screen personas.
Laura Dern's troubled expressions from Blue Velvet bleed through her
garishly lit close-ups. And movie-within-a movie director Jeremy Irons' presence reminds us of his similar presence as an actor in love in "The French Lt's Woman."
Troubled dreams? Primal screams? Not to worry folks, it's only a movie.
John ("Perfect Stranger”)
Returning from visiting my Hollywood talent agency son, I remember the corporate L. A. operating principles are networking and sex, the sum of which is power.
Clay
That's it, the women supply the sex and the men supply the power.
John
Even on the East coast.
Clay
Yep.
John
The formulaic Perfect Stranger summarizes in various amounts of sleaze the similar New York corporate engine.
Rowena (Halle Berry), an investigative reporter, goes after Ad agency tycoon Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) because she believes he murdered her childhood friend in an act of preservation mostly coming from his affair with her and legions of other vulnerable females, many working for his firm. I’ll bet even you could figure out who wins this battle.
Clay
I'll bet you'll not even care.
John
Well, I did enjoy trying to figure out plot twists (the last one is a challenge) and watching a beautiful star. Nothing is perfect about Perfect Stranger but Halle Berry’s face.
Clay ("Perfect Stranger")
Folks, this is a three ending weekend. David Lynch, reputedly, shot three different endings with three different killers for his Inland Empire. And Lawdy, Lawdy, rumor has it, that James Foley did the same for Perfect Stranger.
Unfortunately, Foley's outclassed by Lynch this time around. You'd never guess from this film that Foley's the one who brought us the noirish thriller "After Dark My Sweet."
For in "Perfect Stranger" the blistering action scenes turn out to be scenes of an investigative reporter (Halle Berry) text-typing messages to a would-be killer (as played by a smarmy Bruce Willis).
So, if you enjoy watching fingers on a keyboard, and if you love Halle Berry, you might find you've been charmed by a "Perfect Stranger."
John
I was.
Clay
If not, try the novel.
John
O.K.
Clay
But enough of dark images and dully plotted non- thrillers, John, because it's grading time.
HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR
John
Holy Halle, Hooray!
John
"Inland Empire" earns a “B” for BANISHING logic from the kingdom . . .
Clay
"Inland Empire" gets an "A" because no one more ADEPTLY manufactures cinematic ALLUSIONS than David Lynch . . .
John
"Perfect Stranger" earns a “C” for CAVING to power and sex rather than solid filmmaking . . .
Clay
"Perfect Stranger" gets a "D" for DULLING the excitement of texting for sex . . .
HIT TODAY'S CLOSING THEME (CD: TRUE ROMANCE), THEN UNDER FOR:
John
Clay, our heroes today struggle with sex and memory in failed attempts to control both. You, similarly, are constantly brokering for power at our station, and as for sex, that remains for you a perfect stranger.
I'm outta here.
Clay
Hey, John, without power our station wouldn't be on the air; and even perfect lovers can end up being perfect strangers. Been there, done that.
I'm outta here too.
See you at the movies, folks.
MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:
Richelle
It's Movie Time is written, directed, and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe and is now streaming live on the web and on demand at WCBE.org.
MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT
MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT
Copyright 2007 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
WCBE 90.5 FM: "Grindhouse," "The Animation Show 3," "Blades of Glory”
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, April 6, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org
Clay
"Grindhouse" is Stanley Donen's "Movie, Movie" some twenty-nine years later . . .
John
"Animation Show 2007" is Darwinian Donald Duck . . .
"Blades of Glory" gaily skates around some light laughs . . .
HIT MUSIC ("STAR WARS THEME") THEN UNDER FOR:
Richelle
"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .
MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT
John
I'm John DeSando . . .
Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe ("Grindhouse: 'Planet Terror' - 'Death Proof'')
Folks, back in 1978 director Stanley Donen paid tribute to 50's double-features with his clever "Movie Movie." Yep, with movie trailers and all.
So, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" ain't nothing new. However, their take on the schlock sex-and-action movies of the seventies is, deadly, right on.
"Planet Terror" is pure Rodriguez: blood, guts, and tons of thrown-away body parts. Rose McGowan's one-legged go-go dancer Cherry is one hot momma, and Bruce Willis's tough-nutted army Lt. Muldoon gets just what he deserves.
John
I don’t know the meaning of “tough-nutted,” but I’m getting the idea.
Clay (continues)
I'll bet you are. Anyway, fans already know Tarantino's "Death Proof" is fat too talky, but his car-chase scenes are finally able to get the movie up to speed when his favorite stunt girl (Zöe Bell of Kill Bill fame) spread-eagles into action on the hood of a Dodge Charger.
Wowie, zowie, Zöe.
John ("The Animation Show 2007")
Oh, Zounds!
The Animation Show, with allegedly the world’s greatest animated shorts, is touring with its 2007 edition, locally at Studio 35. It’s friendly to geeky cinephiles liking their images abstract and dark.
What images you ask? How about a defecating dog, a stick figure with Lion King slippers, a failed guide dog, Asian warriors like Wily Coyote, and even voracious old Pac-man.
Clay
Yum, yum.
John
The animation is wildly diverse from kaleidoscopic images in a short called Collision to a hippo, an alligator, and a deer accurately depicted while they argue like jealous humans, to a cut-out animation of a weird rabbit.
I didn’t see Vice President Cheney. Or maybe he was Pac-man digesting his enemies till only he’s left. You can never really tell with these formalistic frolics.
Clay ("The Animation Show 3")
You know, John, if I knew what a "formalistic frolic" was I might agree. But I don't, so here's my take on this collection.
Intro'd by Beavis and Butthead, The Animation Show 3 is a collection of eleven, sometimes clever, sometimes just weird films whose characters could never make it into a Disney movie.
The nastiest is Run Wrake's "Rabbit" which features Dick-and-Jane-like characters who take great delight in cutting open their favorite barnyard pets. The good part is you learn the words printed on-screen next to each of the slaughtered animals.
John (sarcastically)
Nice.
Clay
The smartest film is "Everything Will Be OK" which, these days, is good to know.
And "Guide Dog," the funniest, could have sprung, ironically, from the pages of The New Yorker.
That's it for me, game over . . . Bleep. Bleep.
John ("Blades of Glory")
Not so fast—the ice man cometh.
Clay
Oh, poor ice man.
John
A bit of ballet, precision, and dignity accrue to figure skating, a small world where civility dances with ability. Enter Will Ferrell, the deflator of formula racing and TV broadcasting (among other occupations), to skewer the rarefied competition of Olympic figure skating in Blades of Glory.
With Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite slacker blasting, Ferrell’s mock machismo makes him the Tom Jones and Heder the Owen Wilson of ice. They’re disqualified from competition because of their infantile public combat. They reconcile in time to enter competition as a team.
The climactic competition concludes with an amusingly outrageous assault on JFK and Marilyn Monroe . . .
Clay
Oh, dear.
John (continues his sentence)
. . . An affront to those who revere those icons but a delight to those who see pretense and revisionist history as fair game for Saturday Night Live and Will Ferrell.
Clay
Fair game,sure, but enough of sawed-off legs, stunted stunt men, sliced up rabbits, and gay bladed ice skaters, John, because it's grading time.
John
Holy HARRIED HARES, Hooray!
Clay
Overall "Grindhouse," gets a "B" because it smacks every Grade B movie right where it hurst . . .
John
"The Animation Show" earns a “B” for BLITHELY BURYING an ordered universe . . .
Clay
"The Animation Show" gets a "C" because it's a CLEVER showcase for arrested adolescent development . . .
John
"Blades of Glory" earns a “B” for BLADING close to BANALITY . .
Clay, I think the brother/sister skating couple in Blades is incestuous . . .
Clay
Oh, my.
John
But then I think Ferrell and Heder aren’t gay. I’m so confused I think I’m bipolar.
I'm outta here.
Clay
Ice it, John, because, with global warming and such, being bi-polar today would be more than you could bear.
I'm outta here too.
See you at the movies, folks.
HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC("AIN'T WE GOT FUN"), THEN UNDER FOR
Richelle
The award winning It's Movie Time is written and directed by John DeSando and Clay Lowe and can now be heard on-demand at: http://www. WCBE.org.
MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT
Copyright 2007 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
