Because the Lost craze kind of passed me by with little effect, TV and film writer Damon Lindelof didn’t ring a bell with me at first. But now he’s attached as the main writer for Prometheus, so I checked out his interview on the latest On the Verge podcast. Really good discussion here about screenplay, TV endings, living up to prequel expectations, working with Ridley Scott and much more.
There’s been a lot of critical breakdown of The Avengers success, but The House Next Door’s Ted Pigeon really nails it:
As you might guess, just about every plot turn is recycled from other fantasy or superhero stories…But it’s worth noting that Whedon, to his credit, never pretends that the story arc is particularly significant. He instead supports it from the bottom up, with solid structuring and careful characterization. For example, despite a weak plot, Whedon gets all the mileage he needs out of Hiddleston’s exceptional performance. He bellows phrases like “Kneel before me!” about as convincingly as an actor can, and his demonic smile works to great effect when beaming through that metal-horned helmet of his.
How often do we see such a strong directorial hand or style in a $300 million plus summer blockbuster? Exactly. Without Whedon, The Avengers would have been merely average.
I’ve already plugged the excellent film podcast Battleship Pretension enough here, but this week’s episode was awesome. It’s all about film scores with deep analysis and extended audio clips.
Pretty brilliant Reddit comment thread that made its way around the internet yesterday:
It’s well known that all of Tarantino’s films take place in the same universe – this is established by the fact that Mr. Blonde and Vince Vega are brothers, everybody smokes Red Apple cigarettes, Mr. White worked with Alabama from True Romance, etc.
As it turns out, Donny Donowitz, ‘The Bear Jew’, is the father of movie producer Lee Donowitz from True Romance – which means that, in Tarantino’s universe, everybody grew up learning about how a bunch of commando Jews machine gunned Hitler to death in a burning movie theater, as opposed to quietly killing himself in a bunker…
…What immediately springs to mind about Kill Bill and From Dusk ‘Til Dawn? That they’re crazy violent, even by Tarantino standards. These are the movies produced in a world where America’s crowning victory was locking a bunch of people in a movie theater and blowing it to bits – and keep in mind, Lee Donowitz, son of one of the people on the suicide mission to kill Hitler, is a very successful movie producer.
We’re going way down the rabbit hole here. If you have even a passing curiosity about Quentin Tarantino’s films, check this out.
I started listening to the excellent Battleship Pretension film podcast a few months ago. Hosts Tyler Smith and David Bax are really solid and go deep on movies in a way I rarely see elsewhere. They’ve now expanded their reach to videos as well over at Youtube. Nice discussion topics here averaging no more than ten minutes along with good production values.
Film Crit Hulk over at Badass Digest wrote an extremely in depth breakdown of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive back in March. I finally caught up and read the whole thing last weekend, and it’s incredible. Mulholland Drive is one of those films that started out completely indecipherable on my first viewing. I’ve seen it at least twice since then, and it’s grown to be one of my favorite films of the past decade. As always, Hulk can be distracting with his ALL CAPS style, but he nails a lot of what makes this film so good. I love his break down of Naomi Watt’s audition scene:
HULK THINKS THIS ENTIRE SEQUENCE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST SCENES IN MOVIE HISTORY FOR A SHIT LOAD OF REASONS. THE FIRST IS THE WAY LYNCH ORCHESTRATES THE FUCKING THING. WE’RE SO READY FOR SOME SORT OF COMEDIC REHASHING OF BETTY’S HAM PERFORMANCE EARLIER, BUT THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN. WE JUST ENTER THEIR LITTLE SCENE SO BEAUTIFULLY THAT ALL THOSE THOUGHTS DROP FROM OUR MIND. WE JUST FALL INTO THE SCENE THEY’RE DOING. LYNCH NEVER CUTS AWAY, STAYING CLOSE ON THE TWO ACTORS’ HEADS, BUT LOOSE ENOUGH FOR IT TO FEEL EASY. LOOSE ENOUGH TO FEEL THEIR PASSION AND QUIET MOVEMENT. EMOTIONALLY WE SEEP RIGHT IN. BUT WE ALSO GET INVOLVED. WE KNOW THE SENSE OF THE STORY. WE FEEL THE CHARACTERS’ HISTORY.
WE FORGET EVERYTHING. WE FORGET WHO BETTY IS. WE FORGET WHO THIS GUY IS. WE EVEN FORGET WE’RE IN A FUCKING AUDITION ROOM. AND WHEN IT PULLS BACK WE REMEMBER WHERE WE ARE AND WE FEEL THE SAME EXACT WAY EVERYONE IN THE ROOM DOES… JUST THIS HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.
… AND HULK THINKS IT’S PERFECT CINEMA.
Modern Hollywood blockbusters have one thing in common: lots and lots of guns. The New York Times talks to The Specialists, the largest East Coast supplier of prop movie weapons in the East Coast. It’s crazy there’s over 5000 prop weapons in a bunker somewhere in the middle of Soho.
Crazy to think how Bobcat Goldthwait, probably best known as Zed in the Police Academy series, has evolved into a independent (and very dark) film director. A wide ranging interview with Goldthwait appears on a recent Vice post, where he gives frank advice:
My point is this—if you want to be happy in showbiz (or any creative field), listen to that voice inside you. Even if it says “Fuck it” sometimes. Work with your friends. Avoid chasing fame or money. Just do what you want to do, when and how you want to do it. And if it’s not making you happy, quit. Quit hard, and quit often. Eventually you’ll end up somewhere that you never want to leave.
Michael Mirasol, IndieWire:
The last decade or so was a phenomenal time for the superhero movie genre, both thematically and financially…
But as the decade came to a close, the genre started to have less lofty goals. Since 2008, when the great pairing of Iron Man and The Dark Knight bookended that year's Summer Blockbuster season, there hasn't been a single worthy successor mentioned in the same breath.
Well written and observant opinion piece by Mirasol. An excellent seven minute video essay accompanies his writing.
A supercut of just the kicks from Kickboxer. As the A.V. Club article notes, Jean-Claude Van Damme at his prime was pretty insane physically. It's very much a film relic of its time.