Rapid Response: The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s remake “The Thing” has stellar makeup and special effects, but it’s lacking in the narrative department that its horror counterparts share.

If there’s something missing from “The Thing” it’s certainly not The Thing. We see plenty of it.

John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is a remake of a number of sci-fi B-movies from the ’50s that played on the Red Scare, and while this film lacks that cultural poignancy, it makes up for it in the stylish special effects of the day. Like David Cronenberg’s “The Fly,” it has stunningly outrageous makeup applied in all the wrong places, and it holds up because they’re tangible make-up effects rather than CGI.

Carpenter is of course the horror legend behind “Halloween” and a number of other ’70s and ’80s horror staples. “The Thing” however has a firm place on the IMDB Top 250, presumably for its unseemly effects and people that die really good. Some are incinerated, some are eaten by The Thing’s opening chest cavities or heads, Wilford Brimley shoves his fist into another guy’s mouth. It’s ridiculous, over the top violence that is handled all too gratuitously, but it at least works as a novelty.

Unfortunately, the movie is missing character depth, wit, charm, and even an eerie sense of cabin fever that dominates trapped on the far side of the moon monster movies.

As did the ’50s “The Thing from Another World” or “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “The Thing” is a movie about paranoia and being uncertain about your safety when the enemy could be any of your closest friends. But it’s not an engaging story when all of the characters are one-dimensional, underdeveloped and uninteresting. We catch glimpses of faces and names but are only even partially attached to Kurt Russell’s character MacCready.

And allow me to say now, it’s a bad thing when Kurt Russell is the one giving your movie’s strongest performance. The acting throughout is pretty stilted, and my guess is that the camp appeal in the characters better fits the preposterous goriness.

The verdict is that “The Thing” can barely hold a candle to say, “Alien” or “The Fly,” amongst many others, although I’ll give this ’80s version benefit of the doubt that it is more visually inventive and absurd than the CGI gore-fest of a remake that’s being released in theaters today.

The Ides of March

George Clooney’s political drama lacks the complexity and emotional punch of its predecessors.

Why can’t the Democrats just flat out say how crazy they think all the Republicans are? What is the point of being both rational and polite when it doesn’t make for good drama and certainly doesn’t make for good politics?

“The Ides of March” is a very deliberate, direct film with domineering characters that say what they mean and don’t pull their punches. They don’t have any real wit, charm or depth, but by God they get the job done.

George Clooney’s political thriller follows the events of the Democratic primary and the actions of intelligent, confident and ego driven campaign advisers who will do anything to win. Continue reading “The Ides of March”

Rapid Response: Juliet of the Spirits

If “Juliet of the Spirits” is Fellini’s love letter to his wife Giulietta Masina, then it is the strangest love letter ever made. This remarkably surreal film with its haunting spectral beauty is a deliciously maddening portrait of love as seen through an other worldly lens of spirits, memories and religious symbolism.

A number of critics sight this film as the start of Fellini’s decline as a filmmaker, saying that “Juliet of the Spirits” lacks the autobiographical poignancy of his masterpieces “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2.” “Juliet of the Spirits” was made right after “8 1/2” in 1965, and it’s been said that this film is so frustrating because it feels like Fellini is going on autopilot with half baked visuals and symbols designed precisely to recall his previous films.

Yet Fellini just running on autopilot is a thousand times better than hundreds of other directors working at full capacity, and “Juliet of the Spirits” is so affecting because despite all the criticisms, it remains remarkably exotic, strange, nonsensical and yet all so infectious. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Juliet of the Spirits”

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

There was an article in which a man was nervous to ask his son who his favorite member of the Beatles was. The writer had been a John guy, and he feared that this son might say Paul (gasp!).

But when the son replied George, the father said, “George?”

We may know the Quiet Beatle’s history as a kid in Liverpool and as a spiritual follower of the Maharishi in India, but Martin Scorsese shows us in his documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World” how artful and significant his life was and what that means to us.

For Beatles fanatics and those who have followed George’s solo career faithfully, there may not be much new information about him to be found here. And only in the film’s second half do we begin to realize its profoundness as Olivia Harrison speaks about his spirituality, but the entire film is handled with a sincere level of artistry and grace. Continue reading “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”

Steve Jobs’ influence on the movies

The iPod. The Mac. The iPhone. The iPad. The Apple TV.

Steve Jobs did it all, and with his passing Wednesday at the all too young age of 56 after what now makes sense as an abrupt departure from his CEO job at Apple, he changed technology, home computing, telecommunications and music.

But lesser known is his major hand in pioneering the 21st Century in film.

In 1986, Jobs bought and formed Pixar out of The Graphics Group from Lucasfilm, and with his encouragement and insight turned Pixar into the innovative minds and kings that now rule over animation and digital film.

Jobs was an executive producer on 1995’s “Toy Story,” the first fully digital film ever made and arguably one of the most influential films of the last century of movie making.

Pixar has thanked him on 10 of their features and shorts (he was given “very very special thanks” on Pixar’s first short “Tin Toy” from 1988), and now they thank him one last time.

“He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined.” This was a statement by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, who began Pixar along with Jobs. The full statement by the current Pixar execs as reported by the Huffington Post can be found here.

And this is true of everything Jobs did. The Washington Post said in a video dedicated to him and a Tweet, “Steve Jobs knew what we wanted before we knew it ourselves.”

He knew what the potential of digital film could be, he knew what the potential of digital music could be, and he knew what the potential of a digital world could be.

Could we say that the thriving instant streaming services that Netflix, Hulu and even iTunes offer would still be possible were it not for the pioneering Jobs had in radicalizing the music industry?

We know Steve Jobs changed the world, but we only now realize how widespread his impact truly was.

Image courtesy of The Huffington Post

50/50

They say laughter is the best medicine, but it’s not an appropriate treatment for cancer, even though it has no cure. “50/50,” a dark dramedy about a 27-year-old who contracts a rare spinal cord cancer, isn’t being “jokey” at our expense. It finds laughs through blunt, direct practicality and acceptance of a bad situation.

Through the unfortunate plight of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), “50/50” finds characters who address his cancer head-on and reveal themselves as the healthiest people of all. Continue reading “50/50”

Rapid Response: The Pride of the Yankees

“The Pride of the Yankees” has not aged well. It holds up for its famous closing speech and Babe Ruth, but makes Lou Gehrig one-dimensional.

We’re working on a Sports Movie issue for WEEKEND, and I hadn’t gotten around to seeing “The Pride of the Yankees” despite how I knew it was essential inspirational Old Hollywood.

And now that I have, it is certainly a staple of the old studio system. It’s corny, tame, rousing and a complete lark. It stars Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, a huge star at the time who must’ve only been cast because of how damn well he could deliver that ending speech in front of Yankee stadium, the infamous, “Today, I feel like I’m the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” speech.

The rest of the movie, I hate to say it, Cooper’s a bland, nervous and clumsy mama’s boy. He only knows baseball, he’s awkward in front of everyone but his parents and his stabs at personality are captured only in his own lame prat falls and his frolicking wrestling matches with his wife. Continue reading “Rapid Response: The Pride of the Yankees”

Moneyball

“Moneyball” is a clever baseball movie that makes you think differently about the game and the film genre it belongs to

Baseball is called America’s pastime because we love to imagine it the same we always have. But who still “root roots for the home team” and actually likes Cracker Jack?

“Moneyball” is a clever baseball movie that makes you think differently about the game and the film genre it belongs to. It’s a witty, cynical take on a rousing, inspirational sport, and it’s massively entertaining.

Here is a film that ignores the personality and skill of baseball players, that says the classic ways of finding a winning baseball team is wrong, and stars an anti-hero who’s been kicked down to the point that he doesn’t even see the point of the game anymore. Yet every sports fan is still rapt with attention. Continue reading “Moneyball”

Shoah (1985)

 

“They were stacked like wood.” This is how the Nazis disposed of thousands of Jewish bodies in the Holocaust.

“They fell out like potatoes.” This is how the Jews looked as hundreds simultaneously tumbled out of gas chambers.

“They cried like old women.” This is how Jewish prisoners who were forced to work at Auschwitz and Treblinka reacted to seeing their dead families and friends.

And these are the words from the Devil’s mouth himself, a Nazi officer confessing to documentarian Claude Lanzmann the horror he perpetrated and the repulsive stench of the camps that still lingers in his nostrils.

This is one of the more powerful moments from “Shoah,” the most pivotal film ever made about the Holocaust.

Nearly 10 hours in length and mostly subtitled, “Shoah” proved to be the roughest, most demanding cinematic marathon of my life.

It is a harrowing, torturous documentary made by a ruthless director, French born director Claude Lanzmann.

Lanzmann asks tough questions, paints horrid visuals through testimonials alone and educates to an unspeakable degree. For Lanzmann, the purpose of “Shoah” is to document everything that surrounds the Holocaust to serve as a chilling reminder of our dark history. Continue reading “Shoah (1985)”

Finding solace through cinematic suffering

 

I didn’t get much sleep that night.

I was a bit hungover, my neck was hurting, and I was quite busy.

Keeping all that in mind, I don’t think any level of readiness would have prepared me for what I endured Sunday at the IU Cinema.

“Shoah,” the harrowing and mostly subtitled Holocaust documentary approaching 10 hours in length, proved to be the roughest, most demanding cinematic marathon of my life.

And yet, I’m more than glad to have experienced it. “Shoah” is a masterpiece no doubt, but where most people would feel as though they were sitting (or napping) through hell, even the most torturous movies provide for me a sort of solace many don’t know. Continue reading “Finding solace through cinematic suffering”