Cinematic Measures: Monday Movies

Monday movies are those that don't live up to the prestige of those who made them. They're the minor films by major directors, writers, even actors if you want to think of certain actors as the driving force that makes good movies into great ones. It refers to those movies in an artist's oeuvre that just kind of coast by when we're used to the work of said person brimming with emotion and/or intelligence that makes us want to stand up and cheer or move or do something to make the world a better place: the kind of movies that make the world better for existing and make us better for seeing them. Every director or star takes these kinds of days off. Now there's a name for them.

The name in general refers to the world famous New York Times crossword puzzle and came into fruition after watching the documentary Wordplay, which, because I am not a New Yorker or a cross word puzzler, informed me that the Times crossword get's harder and harder as the week progresses. Monday being the easiest and the weekend being the hardest.

Therefore, a Monday movie is, just what it's name implies: it's a little too easy, too phoned in, too narrow to be considered a really great work. It's a film from someone we expect more from. Scoop is a Monday Movie for Woody Allen, The Color of Money from Scorsese, Death Proof for Tarantino and so on. They aren't necessarily bad movies, they just don't give us what we want from a star or filmmaker who usually produces Friday kind of work.

Other Filmic Measures:

The Documentary Rule

Where's The Airship Movies

The Chocolate Bar Movie

Mike's DVD Haul

The reason I haven't done a DVD haul in a while is because I stopped buying DVDs for a while. You see, I was really unhappy with my job and I figured, with the job market for Human Resources (my most recent area of study) opening up in September, it was the best time to get out and find a new job. Turns out, working in the movie business is not as exciting as it's cracked up to be especially when working under poor circumstances. Regardless, I will be starting a new job on Tuesday and to celebrate I basically blew my first pay. Here's what I got:

I'm not a big TV watcher with the exception of Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm, but decided to go back and check out a few shows that everyone seems to buzz about. I love Hell's Kitchen (Gordon Ramsay is an inspiration for me) and it turns out How I Met Your Mother and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are really funny shows as well. I'm interested in checking out Breaking Bad, can anyone say they'd recommend it or advise against it?

Unfortunately you can't always get the Criterion Collection version, especially when the regular version is as readily available as David Mamet's masterpiece House of Games. Mamet is easily one of the best, most distinctive screenwriters in Hollywood and anyone interested in screenwriting should study this film from both a dialogue and structural standpoint. Being a writer, Mamet is one of those directors who simply sets the stage for his writing to flow, which is just fine as that's the highlight anyway. Anyone further interested in Mamet should check out his book On Directing Film which, even if you don't agree with all of it, is both fascinating and eye opening.

I love Jean-Pierre Melville and this was his last film before his death. I haven't seen it and was actually surprised to find it, but I'm excited to have it in my collection.

Meeting John Madden at TIFF reminded me of how much I liked his underrated film Proof.

I didn't realize that this movie even existed until reading a review of it in my huge 700 page volume of American Film Criticism (which I have since, thankfully finished). This is another unseen-by-me last film by a great director. This time it's Charlie Chaplin.

Chris over at Celluloid Moon wrote about  this Powell and Pressburger film a while ago and recommended it greatly. Hey Chris, don't ever say no one takes your suggestions.

I hadn't owned the original Star Wars trilogy for a long time because there are so many versions of it out there and I didn't want to own the remastered ones that Lucas edited after the release of his prequel trilogy. This box, for someone who doesn't own the flicks, seems to offer both despite all the scorn it got on Amazon from die hard collectors who are sick of repurchasing the same thing over and over again.

I've tried to watch this show in the past and it just never clicked. Then I one episode on the Sundance Channel late one night and laughed out loud more times than at any other show. Alas, another TV show goes on my list of things to rediscover.

This was one of three pairings between director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene, the most popular being The Third Man. I haven't seen it but a Criterion for $16.99 isn't something I easily turn down.

Doing the Movies that Made Going to the Movies suck list reminded me of how much I really love this movie. It's one of the greatest romantic comedies Hollywood ever produced. Strange how no one involved in it thought it was any good at the time. Good job to Ditty for her excellent post on it.

This is the classic Woody Allen movie that always divides fans. The first time I saw it on VHS I hated it, but figured since I own about 90% of Allen's films already, maybe it was time to give it a second chance since I seem to like even his most critically panned older movies (Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Shadows & Fog) and at $2.99 what's there to lose?

This is the kind of movie that you can just throw on and it makes you happy. It was made with love and joy by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott who are both great in their acting roles as well. It's the kind of movie I could watch any time, any day and it would make me smile.

An early John Sayles movie that I haven't seen but again, at $2.99 and owning most of Sayles other movies (just need City of Hope, Passion Fish and Matewon really), there was nothing to lose.

Haven't seen this one either but a lot of very good critics buzzed about it when it first came out. It's cost also had a lot to do with the purchase.

I remember an ex-girlfriend buying this version of Almost Famous for her sister for her birthday many many years ago. I borrowed it to see what all the fuss was about and didn't love it or hate it, but always thought I should give it another try. I was surprised to find that, about a year ago, when I went to look up this Bootleg Cut that ads 40 minutes to the movie (I watched the theatrical version) that it was out of print and going for big bucks online. Luckily I found it used for $14.99 and hope that a second viewing, or maybe first viewing of the director's cut, will change my mind.

The one Dirty Harry movie that was left out of the package I got that had films 1-4 in it. This one, for some reason, takes a lot of flack but, besides the first, is my favourite Dirty Harry film. I especially love the scene where the chase form Bullit is recreated with remote control cars. I laugh out loud every time.

I've seen two of these three films (Blue has always eluded me). I've never been the biggest Kielowski follower (The Double Life of Veronique didn't move me here or there the first time) but again, it's time to rediscover this acclaimed director and Red, from my memory, is quite a special film.

I love dark comedy, which is why I presented a paper on it at the Midwest Undergraduate Film Conference at the University of Notre Dame, and this British one is minor but delightfully devious. The key to black comedy is giving the audience exactly the opposite of what they expect and that's exactly what this film does by casting the wonderful Maggie Smith as a nanny with some devious and very funny secrets.

I haven't seen this film but when I saw that Roger Ebert said that it's director Ramin Bahrani is the next great American director I took notice. I saw Man Push Cart a while back and was impressed by that but apparently this film is transcendent.



Fubar 2 (2 out of 5)

There’s a scene in Fubar 2 when a now bearded Tron actually shows up to Deaner’s party to celebrate his winning the battle against testicular cancer. Tron, the infamous party pooper from Fubar, finds out that actually the party has double edged significance because Dean and best buddy Terry are being evicted from their house. Tron declares they ruin the place and after the house is demolished and set on fire, Tron runs down a smoke-filled hall towards the camera, chainsaw in hand to the rumblings of some 80s hard rock before the title blazes across the screen. Apparently director Michael Dowse decided this time out he wanted to make a real narrative film with some aesthetic worth and forgot in the process exactly what made the original Fubar so special.

The original film’s documentary style ensured that there was no aesthetic pretension on display and the result was a hilarious mockumentary in which the biggest joys were simply in hanging out and watching this two morons go about their lives. By, to a large extent, ignoring the documentary style in the sequel, the film now feels rigid and structured. Terry and Deaner are still the same lovable boobs but their medium has confined them to a plot that isn’t as interesting as just watching them, well, be themselves.

The story this time finds bumbling Canadian mullet-heads Dean (Paul Spence), cancer free after losing a testicle in the first film, and Terry (David Lawrence) being Terry. However, out of money and being promised a job by best friend Troy (a.k.a Tron) a job on the oil patch of Fort McMurry, the boys saddle up (all they possess seems to be the clothes on their backs, their old beater and the skid of beer in the trunk) and head North to make some bread.

Not surprisingly, they are both nearly incompetent on the job (the film’s biggest laugh comes from their watching a video on workplace safety). Terry tries, God bless him, but he doesn’t have a brain in his head while Dean tries to amuse himself by doing anything other than actual work. He’s so bad that he gets it in his head that if he fakes an accident on site he can live off workers comp. Tron agrees to do it for a 50/50 split.
Meanwhile Terry falls hard for Trish (Terra Hazelton), a local bartender. When Terry describes her as his girlfriend all the oil men laugh. She’s more like all of their girlfriends, if he gets the drift. Somehow, he doesn’t.

This inevitably drives a wedge between Terry, who wants to settle down and Dean who wants to keep on partying hard with his best pal. There’s also a cheap subplot out Dean’s cancer coming back, forcing him into a suicidal funk.

If you think I’ve given away a major spoiler, I haven’t because the cancer issue, unlike the first time around, is here used simply as a convenience for the plot, as if Dowse and co-writers Spence and Lawrence thought the story had to actually go somewhere and prove something (the late appearance from a character from the first film is especially a low point). But that was what made the first film so much fun. It had nothing to prove and no one to prove it to. It played by its own rules and by being about nothing really in particular except these two guys, it was hilarious.

This sequel tries its hardest to recapture the spirit of that original film: it’s bigger, more professional looking, and has more hardcore partying as if that’s what these three thought made the first film a comic treasure. But there’s not a lot of heart in just watching these guys either getting wasted or spinning their wheels within a routine plot. Lawrence and Spence, when they are allowed to settle down and actually do their routine, play the characters for all they are worth, proving just how much fun these two guys can be, but stuck within the confines of a, more or less, conventional narrative, this sequel just can’t find the energy to really give’r.

One Minutes Review: Paranormal Activity (3 out of 5)

At this point Paranormal Activity is not so much a film as a cultural artifact. Somehow into the critical mix comes the knowledge that this isn't just a horror film, but an artifact that was made for next to nothing and went to to not only make hundreds of millions but also beat all the big money makers at the box office, while in limited release no less. Forget whether it's good or not, $100,000 doesn't lie. Truth is, when we strip it all back down to basics the movie is okay.

It begins with a brilliant and unquestionably scary premise. A girl feels as though she is being followed by a paranormal presence, which has been in and out of her life since age 8. Her boyfriend, who she lives with, buys a video camera in order to hopefully capture something on tape so they can get a better understanding of it. In all the extensive research he does on the paranormal he certainly must have come across some numbers to suggest that the likelihood of catching the paranormal on tape exists somewhere in the one percentile, but no matter. They call up a psychic who specializes in ghosts and informs them that he can't help. His speciality is the dead but what he senses is a demon which, he helpfully explains, is not human but rather some evil force that follows people around just to mess with them. And so the nights go. The occurrences start out mild: footsteps in the hallway, doors moving slightly to and fro, lights flicking on and off, Katie getting out of bed and standing over Micah for hours without explanation.  

The psychic gives the couple the name of a demonologist to help them but Micah refuses the aid of the new doctor in one of the film's sly jabs at human nature: Micah's alpha male persona gets the best of him as he casts himself in the role of protector. Ain't no ghost going to mess with his girl. But the hauntings get worse: pictures are broken, loud noises cry out from the dark, footprints appear on the floor and Katie is dragged out of bed by an invisible force.

All of this is fine and dandy and by the time the hour and a half running time grinds to a halt, completely tiring and redundant. The majority of the hauntings occur in dark blue huges as the stationary camera films the couple's dark bedroom, a convenient clock in the bottom corner conveying the time. The setting is so repetitious that it ultimately negates the purpose. As soon as the lights go out and that blue eye-level shot appears we know that, sometime between 2:00am and 4:00am something spooky is going to go down and it's only a matter of time before writer/director Oren Peli stretches his prospects too thin. There's only so many times footsteps, flicked lights and absent-minded wanderings in the dark retain their power before enough is enough, leading up to a "shocking" ending which is, considering, about as predictable as it is unbelievable.

As a cultural cultural artifact, Paranormal Activity is fascinating. As a horror film, it's passable for a little while.

TIFF Red Carpet: Peep World

My last red carpet of TIFF was this one.

Michael C. Hall of Dexter and Six Feet Under fame shows up over an hour before the premier, which is fine with me because we were way down and he was the only star to make his way down to us. He was super nice and signed for just about everyone. He signed by second season of Six Feet Under. I told him it was the best show that's ever been on TV. "AWWWW, thank you" he said, eerily like David.

I have this strange sort of crush on Taraji P. Henson. She was, as you'd expect, spunky and funny.

From behind.

Sarah Silverman signed for a lot of people and took a lot of pictures. When she was done she didn't know who's marker she had taken so in typical Sarah Silverman fashion she shrugged and tossed it randomly back into the crowd.

Judy Greer is cute and funny. I didn't recognize her at first but there she is.

TIFF Red Carpets: The Debt

Sam Worthington has a stern look about him but he is actually very soft spoken and polite. He signed for just about everyone and was generally very nice. I didn't have anything for him to sign but I got an autograph for some guy who had a Clash of the Titans picture.

Helen Mirren was super classy. She was nice a spunky and signed for just about everyone. "Oh dear don't push," she said to the crowd. "Just raise them up high and I'll get them." She signed my copy of The Long Good Friday, one of her first movies.

The publicist came over and asked us if anyone wanted to meet the director. We certainly did. I didn't have anything for John Madden to sign but I got this picture with him and told him I really loved Proof. "Oh, thank you very much," he said in that proper British way.

TIFF Red Carpet: The Black Swan

Other than Saturday, Monday was the biggest day for celebrities at Roy Thompson Hall. We had shown up earlier to catch a glimpse of Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu the former of which left my copy of Belle De Jour unsigned and the latter being a no show. However it didn't matter because what everyone was really watching for were the people from Black Swan.

Vincent Cassel managed to zip by, only stopping briefly. Unfortunately it wasn't to sign my copy of La Haine.

The guy I was with was eagerly awaiting Winona Ryder as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands are his favourite movies. I also had a copy of Age of Innocence, that most hated and misunderstood Scorsese film. However, Ryder was sweeped away by her publicist despite chants for her to come back. She kept looking back like an innocent little school girl as if she wanted to come over but couldn't. I later read somewhere that she's one of the worst autographers.

I knew Barbara Hershey was in this movie but apparently didn't do my research properly because she's in one of my favourite movies: Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. Oh well, next time.

 Here comes Darren Aronofsky

That is Darren Aronofsky grabbing my pen to sign my copy of Requiem for a Dream. I told him he was the next Scorsese and he smirked. I said he was one of my favourite directors and he said "Oh, only one of them?" I think he was joking but this is clearly a man who knows he's good.

It could be pure coincidence but as Aronfosky walked off with wife Rachel Weisz I yelled out "The Shape of Things," which is what I wanted her to sign and she looked back. Not sure if that was what she was looking back about but they both happened at the same time.

Everyone went nuts for the super petit Natalie Portman. She missed my copy of Closer but then her publicist (the girl behind who looks like Sophie Coppola) grabbed it and got her to sign it. She signed for a lot of people but then the guy I was with heard her say "Is that enough now?" to her publicist.

Dominic Cooper showed up for no reason in particular. Mila Kunis was a no show.