The Spare — Wong Fu Productions

Wonderful modern story-telling, from Japan.

 

Deathly Hallows At The Rio

We went to the movies yesterday afternoon, to see the latest Harry Potter film.  I am not a big Potter fan; I’ve seen a few of the films and read none of the books.  But the Boss has read them all and seen every one of the movies. She loved it, thought it was just great.  It certainly was well made, but I would have had no idea of the plot without having at least seen the first couple of films. As it was a lot of the background story passed me by.  Still, it was good to be out together.

We went to the Rio at Commercial and Broadway.  The last time we were there was ten years ago when we went to see a documentary about the D’Arcy Island Leper Colony, and the seating was fold-up chairs.  Now, I am happy to report, the Rio has wonderfully comfortable seats, perfectly good for a nap if your mind wanders.

I was also very impressed by the efforts they have made to get local small business to advertize between shows.  The Van East Cinema could learn some useful lessons from them.

The Lingering Death of Video Stores

The video rental store — one or more of which has probably been a fixture in your main street — is coming to the end of its relatively short life; after their emergence in the early 1970s, it is hard to see them surviving much into the next decade.  They have been overwhelmed by Netflix and video-on-demand-on-TV and all those movies now available through the internet.

There are three independent video stores still operating on Commercial Drive here in Vancouver, but I expect them all to become coffee bars or schwarma cafes within the next year or so.

While Blockbuster only went bankrupt last month, Wayne Huizenga who built the company in its “blockbuster” days saw the writing on the wall and sold out for billions in the late 1990s.   Now, the Wall Street Journal formally issues the burial notice.

I disagree with some of the comments on the WSJ piece:  I do not expect bookstores to go the same way anytime soon.  A VCR or CD case, no matter how attractive the images, does not have the appeal of a book; they are very different items in how they feel, how they work and how people feel about them.  I’m sure that books will go on for a long while yet, regardless of the growing popularity of the Kindle and its clones.  But video rentals, their time has already come and gone.

R.I.P. x Three

The last few days have been hard on the movie industry.  First we lost the esteemed editor Sally Menke who has cut all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies since “Reservoir Dogs“.  She was only 56 and seems to have died of heat exposure while hiking.

Then we lost Arthur Penn, the genius director of “Miracle Worker” and “Bonnie & Clyde“.

And this morning Tony Curtis died.  There weren’t many movies he starred in that I didn’t appreciate his work.  He was great in everything from “Defiant Ones” and “Sweet Smell of Success” to “The Boston Strangler” and “Some Like It Hot.”

A tough week.

What’s The Big Deal With 3-D?

There is an interesting piece in the New York Times today about the campaigns being prepared by television manufacturers to sell us on the expensive idea of 3-D on TV.  Samsung alone will spend $100 million this year on marketing it to us.

TV manufacturers are betting on 3-D. There are forecasts that consumers will buy 3.5 million to 4 million such sets, or about 10 percent of all United States television sales, this year. But that may be optimistic. Different and incompatible technologies mean that one maker’s glasses, for example, cannot be used on another’s television model. “The glasses go for a premium — around $150 — which means it’s costly, for example, to have a few people over for a Super Bowl party, unless it’s ‘bring your own compatible spectacles,’ ” said Ross Rubin, an analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm.

This is all such nonsense! I see in 3-D all the time, it is the natural way of seeing for human beings — and we do it without having to resort to fancy glasses.  Why would I want to pay extra for what is normal?    For me, one of the aesthetics of watching television or film or even fine art is that 2-D is NOT normal, and the skill is in translating a regular 3-D world into the artistic constraints of 2-D.

I’ll stick with the unreality of movies and TV and paintings, thanks very much.

A Serious Masterpiece

Tonight we went to see the Coen Brothers’ latest movie, “A Serious Man“.  This is movie-making as fine art.  Neither Hitchcock nor Fellini nor Welles could have done better.  And none of them could have managed it in a comedy.

I haven’t seen “Avatar” but I know in advance that it a movie by and about technology.  “A Serious Man” on the other hand is about the acting, the writing, the direction, the editing, the depiction in style and content of a remembered age and social milieu.  “A Serious Man” is just about perfect on all those levels.

Go see it while you still can.

Tim Burton As Artist

I have always enjoyed Tim Burton’s movies — and I am looking forward with anticipation to his “Alice” — but not in any fanatical way: they often have a conceptual similarity about them that detracts for me.   Besides being a filmmaker, Burton is also an artist and the NY Museum of Modern Art has honoured him with an “expansive” retrospective.  Ken Johnson, the NY Times art critic, is not impressed.

Given the tremendous visual appeal of Mr. Burton’s movies, you would hope that “Tim Burton,” the Museum of Modern Art’s expansive retrospective of his noncinematic art, would be equally exciting. Alas, it is a letdown. Focused mainly on hundreds of drawings dating from his teenage years to the present and including paintings, sculptures, photographs and a smattering of short films on flat screens, it is an entertaining show and a must for film buffs and Burton fans. To see the raw material from which the movies evolved is certainly illuminating. But there is a sameness to all Mr. Burton’s two- and three-dimensional output that makes for a monotonous viewing experience.

That’s a shame, but I am not altogether surprised.

 

 

Watching The Culture Change

As a further sign that going to the movies is no longer the world’s favourite entertainment activity, the latest video game craze “Call of Duty 2” was released just five days ago. In the brief time since then, sales have totaled $550 million. The highest ever 5-day total for a movie was for last year’s “Dark Knight“, which took $204 million in that period.

Estimates are that “Call of Duty 2” will make $780 million by the end of this year alone at $60 a copy.

Game building costs continue to climb, but they are nothing like the costs associated with major motion pictures (James Cameron’s new “Avatar” is said to have cost $500 million to produce). So, higher returns and lower costs: which business would you rather be in?

Feenie and Pixar: A Great Hit

My wonderful wife and I had a date night on Tuesday. Meeting downtown, we went to the Cactus Club restaurant on Burrard, and then to the movies. It was great fun and we need to do that more often.

This was my first time at Cactus Club since Rob Feenie became involved with the local chain, and we were very impressed. The service and ambience were good, which always makes everything else so much better. The menu was eclectic but not too long, mixing new surprises with basic favourites. I had the pepper steak, which was cooked to a perfect rare. My gal had the planked salmon, which she declared to be delightful.

One of the nice things was that everything was simply served. My steak came with mashed potatoes and asparagus spears; the salmon with small roast potatoes, carrots and asparagus. All very simple but all perfectly cooked. We will definitely return.

Note: we got there at 5:30pm and beat a huge rush by about ten minutes.

After dinner, we went up to the Scotia and watched “Up” in 3-D. What a delightful experience. Pixar is still batting 100% so far as I am concerned. The animation was perfect, of course, and the use of 3-D was brilliantly handled without being in-your-face. For once (thank God), the little kid was not smarter than the adult — he was just a kid. Excellent show and well worth the time.

All in all, a great date.

Happy 80th Birthday Mickey!

Like the Queen of England, Mickey Mouse has a real birthday (presumably May 15, 1928, the release of “Plane Crazy“) and an official birthday. Today, in 1928, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks released “Steamboat Willie” to a receptive world.

As the global representative of Disney, the symbol of Mickey Mouse has become so powerful that it can, at one and the same time, represent both the American Dream and the American Nightmare.  Now that is marketing!

The Late, Great, and Wealthy

Last year Elvis Presley made $52 million.  That’s an increase on the $49 million he made the year before.  For a guy who’s been dead thirty years, he makes big bucks.  More than any other dead celebrity, in fact, according to Forbes.  The Colonel must be spinning with frustration in his grave because that’s a whole lot more money than the King made when he was alive!

By the way:  Do dead guys pay taxes?

As an aside, the Forbes list reminds me of something that’s been bothering me for a while:  Who is it that’s pushing the memory and myth of James Dean?   Dean died in the middle 50s at a time when the very earliest boomers would not have been interested in him.  What we brought forward into the future was 60s nostalgia, not the 50s.  Obviously the punks, gen Xers, and millenials were even further removed from “Giant” and “East of Eden“.  So, is it the remainders of my parents’ generation who shell out the $5 million he made in 2007 (53 years after the fatal crash)?

I fully understand that images of James Dean stand for alienation and rebellion; and that these emotions and concepts have driven teenagers (especially) in every generation since World War 2 at least.  But couldn’t each generation have found their own alienated heroes to cherish and market?  How come he has resisted obsolescence?  Surely, no-one looking at his three movies today can genuinely suggest his wooden posturings match modern sensibilities.

Anyway, good for him and his.  I don’t understand the continued charm, but that’s just me.

The $35 Movie Experience

Regular readers will know that the child bride and I go to see movies at the Van East Cinema.  $6 in the stalls or another 50 cents for a balcony seat. No frills.  First run shows.  Great sound.  That compares very favourably with $11 or $12 downtown.  And as for the South Barrington Gold Class Cinema in Illinois!

Complete with recliners and a seasonal dining menu … Gold Class Cinemas offers a much more upscale, intimate night out than your typical evening at the local theater.  “It truly is an experience,” said Marissa Denny, a Gold Class spokeswoman.  Each theater has a maximum of 40 seats. Individual reclining arm chairs are assigned to each ticket holder and full waiter service is available inside the theater with just the push of a call button. Gold Class assures other moviegoers won’t be disturbed during the movie … Valet parking is included in the $35 ticket, but the popcorn or cocktails are not free. Patrons will, however, have a professional server who will bring slippers and a blanket upon request. The theater’s menu includes a full wine list, Dom Perignon champagne at $295 a bottle, and food items like duck tacos, Wagyu beef burgers and bleu cheese potato chips.

Now that is the kind of place to which you should have delivered your $135 hamburger.

R.I.P. To A Genuinely Good Guy

Paul Newman (1925-2008)

Burn After Reading

Burn after reading is what you ought to do for every critic’s column that has damned the new Coen Brothers’ masterpiece with faint praise.

This is sublime movie-making at every level — writing, directing, casting, shooting — providing multiple treats for eye and brain.   “Burn AfterReading” has all the delight, wit and insight of early Woody Allen combined with the mature mid-career brilliance of Joel and Ethan Coen’s filmmaking.   In no other medium could so many plot lines be hung together so brilliantly in such a short span of time.

Bravo to the superb cast; and perhaps most of all to Brad Pitt who allowed himself to play a dorky character with such pizazz and joy.

It is amazing what a deep seated desire for plastic surgery can do!

Wall-E

The other day we went to see Pixar’s new movie, “Wall-E”.   What a treat it was:  an interesting concept, well developed into a plot, and delivered in their ever-improving animation style.

Pixar’s ability to invest two-dimensional “cartoon” characters with believable life is extraordinary.  In this movie, there is an extended sequence where two robots Wall-E and Eva fall in love — and you can see it and believe it at least as well as watching the best live-action actors.

Technically dazzling and emotionally heart-warming, “Wall-E” joins the list of nine masterpieces in a row by Pixar — not many (if any) studios can boast of that.  I wonder what Walmart thinks of it?

In our location — and perhaps everywhere — “Wall-E” is preceded by a Pixar short called “Presto” about a magician’s troubles with his rabbit.  Don’t miss it — this five-minute wonder is worth the price of admission all by itself!

The Bleak Leading The Bleak

This weekend, we decided to watch two middling-recent movies: “Sweeney Todd” and “There Will Be Blood“. Both are without pity, without love, bleak and without any corner to hide from the hideousness of some human emotions.

The all-singing no-dancing “Sweeney Todd” brings together some of my favourite ingredients — Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Mrs Tim Burton — and yet fails to satisfy (me, that is; the wife thought it was good.) There is no character in the piece that we would want to cheer for, and the lack of basic human spirit depressed me. The standard Burton black-and-white look over-extends itself — the film deserved something more original and challenging. I did like the brief appearance by Sacha Baron Cohen, an actor I have not enjoyed in the past, but that could not counter-balance the feeling I had that Depp and Bonham-Carter and Rickman were lending themselves to a less than perfect idea by a friend.

At the end of “Sweeney Todd“, we leave the crazy barber alone after his latest murder. The self-same scene — leaving Daniel Plainview alone after his latest murder — ends “There Will Be Blood“. Of course, being an Oscar contender, it took “Blood” a heck of a lot longer to get to that same point. At almost three hours, watching this slow, slow movie in a theatre must have seemed like a life sentence. At home, at least we could press pause and have a smoke every once in a while.

Tedious, episodic, and lacking dramatic incident, “Blood” is entirely a character piece for Daniel Day-Lewis as he takes Plainview from hard-bitten miner to deranged millionaire maniac. It is good acting work, but I preferred the more complete roundness of his Butcher role in “Gangs of New York“. The director sometimes uses less than traditional camera placements and that holds the interest, briefly. But in the end, this is a study of a lack of humanity that is bleaker than the landscape within which the story takes place. It needed a better range of actors against whom the lead could play: I never believed in Eli Sunday, the son was too young and dumb most of the time, and Plainview’s erstwhile brother was excellently played but in too little of the movie. And what on earth was Ciaran Hinds being payed to do (I wish I had his agent)?

King Kong At 75

It was 75 years ago today that the saddest ape, King Kong, was unleashed on movie houses in New York.

No Country For Old Men

The joys of the Vancouver East moviehouse have been written about before, and we enjoyed them again last night when we went to see the very fine “No Country For Old Men“.

I confess I have not read a single work by Cormac McCarthy, but I know now that I must. I’ll make him my summer reading project. “No Country” is a complex and often mystical story of people and place. It is deeply embedded in the here and now (of 1980 West Texas, at least) but is at the same time off-center in its fantastical storytelling. It is a marvelous middle, with no beginning (the drug deal gone bad happens before the story starts) and no end (no loose strings are neatly tied). McCarthy gave the brilliant Coen Brothers all the material they needed to build another cinematic masterpiece, and they didn’t fail.

I am sure that a half-generation of film scholars have picked through the Coen Brothers filmography and deconstructed their methods, but I haven’t read any of them either. The mystery of how a Coen Brothers movie is better than someone else’s movie is still a mystery to me. But it doesn’t matter when the end result — the result of just sitting and watching — is so satisfying. However, one aspect of their movie making does stand out even to me, and that is the brilliance of their casting. I doubt that Tommy Lee Jones has ever been more perfect for a role; and Javier Bardem is a marvelous slab against which the waves of the story crash. And, as always with them, the secondary and minor roles are cast with an equally perfect eye.

To my regret, “No Country” is the only one of the Best Film nominees we have seen this year. Any one of the others would have to be sublime to defeat “No Country” though.

Betty Boop For President

This year I’m voting Betty Boop for President!

I hope she makes Mr Nobody her Vice-President.