Book Status
Work on the Cashiers du Cinemart book is going nicely. Revisiting these older pieces has been interesting. I've been working to reconcile some of the similarly-themed articles, eliminate some of the time references ("recently this new movie came out" ten years ago), and kill some of the more glaring grammatical errors.
One of the more onerous chores has been the elimination of my qualifiers. Too many "however"s, "therefore"s, et cetera. I want to tighten this thing down with a socket wrench.
Logistically, I've been trying to track down Nathan Kane to get his permission to reprint his cover art in a discussion of the zine's evolution. No luck yet. I'm also wondering what the heck I'm going to do for the cover of the book and if I'm going to just call it "The Cashiers du Cinemart Book" or if I'm going to give it an easier title. Maybe I'll take Charles Willeford's advice and use a two word title. "Stinky Britches"? "Tough Facade"? I'll think of something. I won't bother asking for help or suggestions since the "Comments" button on the site doesn't seem to be working.
State of Film Criticism Part 2
Last weekend I was privileged enough to host a panel at the Maryland Film Festival on the state of film criticism.
Michael Sragow of the Baltimore Sun was unable to attend but Andrew O'Hehir from Salon.com filled in for him. I regret Michael not being there but Andrew was a great addition to the panel as he represented the online world that had been missing from the "all print" panelists.
Things ran pretty much as I expected with O'Hehir, Gardner, and Kaltenbach anticipating my notes. We didn't break any new ground or change the world but it was a lively discussion nevertheless. I tried to not interject myself into things too much, though I found that I was playing Devil's advocate at times and the naive idealist at others.
Some of the takeaways included:
- Chris Kaltenbach differentiated between "film reviews" and "film criticism" in a concise way; in film criticism you can talk about the end of a film where a film review should never give it away! This is a pretty good rule of thumb.
- Lee Gardner talked about a fascinating project he attempted; writing down the names and affiliations of every critic associated with blurbs found in movie ads in the New York Times. He tried tracking all of these critics down and found himself running into a vast number of movie reviewers who suddenly seemed to have gone missing.
- Andrew O'Hehir explained the editorial process through which his reviews undergo. It's quite a bit different from print.
It was a rather rousing discussion and one I hoped that would continue over drinks but the panelists scattered to the four winds afterwards.
As we were wrapping up someone mentioned, "If you want to read more of our reviews they're all available on RottenTomatoes.com to which I had to add, "Except me."
I found out yesterday that my application to the OFCS (Online Film Criticism Society)--a gateway to Rotten Tomatoes--has been refused. "The vote didn't go your way," is how it was explained to me. I had thought I was a shoo-in after being both online (eleven years) and writing reviews (fourteen years) but it's not in the cards to be part of the club, I suppose.
This Week's Movie Reviews
Here are this week's movie reviews from Detour-Mag.com:
If you enjoy 'em, be sure to leave comments on Detour's site so they know someone likes what I'm doing.
FRONTIERE(S) (Xavier Gens, 2007, France)
I see that this film is coming out to DVD on Tuesday. Be warned!
To say that this French thriller is derivative would be a compliment. FRONTIERES follows a road map of other previous films. It travels from RESERVOIR DOGS Place down PSYCHO Lane as five (soon to be four) friends escape Paris with a duffel bag full of cash. There’s a signpost up ahead. It reads “FRONTIERES” with an arrow pointing right to HOSTEL and one pointing to the left to TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (in little letters below that it says “the remake”). A little on up the road there’s a detour marked THE DESCENT. All of these places are in the idyllic French countryside in the county of HAUTE TENSION.
Throw in a Nazi war criminal as a patriarch, some terrifically hot girls, and a few thuggish brutes and you’ve got all the makings of the next Rob Zombie film. I was casting the American remake in my head as the events of FRONTIERES predictably unfolded. The joke, of course, is that the film is named FRONTIERES but it doesn’t boldly go into any territory that horror fans (especially those enthralled with torture porn horror) haven’t been to before.
Dollar Coins: Stating the Obvious
Andrea brought home a new dollar coin tonight. It commemorates our fifth U.S. president, James Madison. It also signifies the stupidity of the U.S. treasury.
Considered "The New Coke of Coinage," the Susan B. Anthony coin was a disastrous attempt at reinvigorating the dollar as metal rather than paper. It was significantly more portable than what it replaced, the Eisenhower dollar. The Eisenhower dollar had a diameter of 38.1 mm compared to the Susan B. Anthony's 26.5 mm. That's a rather huge difference of 12.4 mm. While 38.1 mm is too big, 26.5 mm is too small, when compared to a quarter. At 24.26 mm, there's only a 2.26 mm. In other words, not enough of a difference to feel when digging into your purse or pocket for a dollar and coming up with a quarter, or vice versa.
Between the Susan B. Anthony (disparagingly known as "The Carter Quarter"), the Sacajawea dollar, and now this Madison coin, the U.S. Mint seems insistent on sabotaging an American dollar coin. I'm not against dollars, per se, but dollar coins will never have a chance in the U.S. as long as they're the "same size" as quarters.
This is yet another time when we can learn from Canada. The difference between their quarter and their dollar coin (loonie) is significant. The loonie differs in color (bronze vs. silver), thickness (.17mm), and weight (1.27g). The numbers aren't drastic but the contrast is more than enough to avoid confusion and pass the "pocket test." C'mon, America, get with it!
Travel Pictures
Below are a few pictures taken on my recent trips.
A sign in a restaurant (SEN5ES). Usually animals (other than service animals) are allowed in restaurants. The addition of the word "live" makes me wonder what would happen if I dragged a rotting animal corpse in.
The TSA spares no expense on either "Recomposure Areas" (the place to put your shoes back on) or signage.
Big ups to my pal Nick for snapping this picture of some great public art in Baltimore.
This Week's Movie Reviews
Check out the reviews I wrote for Detour-Mag.com
Subscribe to daily email updates
Revisionism
Pssst, that's not the name of the film. In case you don't remember, there was no "Indiana Jones and the...." before "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I know they did this earlier but it always burns my buns when I see this. Have they changed the film to match it, yet?
Second Foray
I made my second foray into Detroit's Metro Times today. It's a quickie review of Flash Point but there's a promise of bigger things to come.
David Goodis Film Festival in Berkeley, CA
In a bit of serendipity, the Pacific Film Archive at University of California Berkeley will be showing a series of films based on the works of David Goodis in August, 2008! Based on my article about the filmic adaptations of Goodis's work, I've been invited out to introduce a film. As noted on the schedule below, I'm going to be speaking a bit before Truffaut's SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER. I intend on doing a better job than when I introduced Eddie Muller at the Philly Festival earlier this month.
I'll be flogging this for a few months, just FYI.
Friday, August 1
Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947)
Introduced by Barry Gifford
The Unfaithful (Vincent Sherman, 1947)
Saturday, August 2
Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut 1960) - Brand New Print!
Introduced by Mike White
Tuesday, August 5
Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut 1960)
Thursday, August 7
Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
Introduced by Eddie Muller
The Burglar (Paul Wendkos, 1957)
Introduced by Eddie Muller
Sunday, August 10
Descent Into Hell Francis Girod, France, 1986)
Thursday, August 14
The Burglar / Le Casse (Henri Verneuil, France, 1971)
Thursday, August 21
The Professional Man x Two (Directed by Nicholas Kazan & Steven Soderbergh)
Introduced by Nicholas Kazan
And Hope to Die (Rene Clement, France/Canada/U.S., 1972)
Saturday, August 23
Moon in the Gutter (Jean-Jacques Beineix, France, 1983)
Why So Similar?
Not making any claims to the veracity of the above (need to go back and check the original preview -- but it's been burned upon my brain after 1989). Regardless, this is an interesting study of juxtaposition and marketing.
The State of Film Criticism
What: Panel discussion on the State of Film Criticism
Where: Tent City at the Maryland Film Festival (across from the Charles theater)
When: Sunday May 4th, 2008 in the Panel Tent
Who: Michael Sragow (Baltimore Sun), Chris Kaltenbach (Baltimore Sun), Lee Gardner (City Paper). Moderator: Mike White
Which brings us to "Why" -- Apparently there's something in the air at the moment as this discussion seems to key in well with a recent event at New York's Moving Image Institute which began an interesting dialog about this subject which I hope to follow up on during this panel discussion.
Check out some of the coverage of the event over at Shooting Down Pictures and SpoutBlog:
Compare the above to some of the speaking points I have jotted down (some may be cryptic but they make sense to me):
- DIY criticism (blogs, imdb, amazon, forums, epinions, etc.)
- Salon versus AICN
- Magazines as collectibles (Lost, Dr Who, Star Trek, etc.)
- Distribution systems suck. Are Magazines/journals on their last legs?
- Books (tie ins, biographies, film guides, scripts, a few actual attempts at re-viewing. Intentional hyphen.)
- Cheapening the "Brand" (continuity mistakes and Easter eggs, Top ten lists)
- Criticism versus reviews versus theory versus semantic masturbation
- Confusion of film reviews versus film criticism. Thumbs aren't theories.
Now that I know who the folks on the panel are, I'm going to have to do a little research. I've had the pleasure of listening to Kaltenbach in the past when he's introduced Sunday Movies at the Charles and I don't think he views himself as "Critical Royalty," but I'll be curious to ask him and the others about their attitudes when it comes to plebeian film reviewers.
I'm pretty sure that I fit into that category though I feel that I'm more in a grey area between the bloggers and the floggers, that I was in my little zine ghetto for so long that I missed the populist revolution while still in the mindset of "Kill Yr Idols" where I rejected many of the pillars of the film criticism pantheon while trying to hoe my own row. That's not to say that my bookshelves aren't littered with works by Gerald Peary, Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris, etc. (three of the speakers at the MII event). There are writers whose works I enjoy, those who I respect, and even those who fit into both categories. I just never felt beholden to the Paulene Kaels of the world (though I'll hand it to the gal for also disliking SHOAH).
It's ironic that only now, after all these years, I finally have started to set my sights on trying to fit in with the misfits. I made a list of the few magazines who are still kicking and whose work I respect. I dropped them all a copy of Cashiers du Cinemart #15 and a cover letter asking about lending my pen to their pages. So far, the return tally has been exactly one. I'm hoping to hear from more of these fine rags soon though I have the fear that, like with CineAction and Shiznit.co.uk that I'll be too lowbrow for one publication but too highbrow for another. I need to find me a few good "midbrow" magazines who'll love my assbackwards awkward style.
Future X by Kent Smith
At NoirCon, I was lucky enough to see Gary Phillips discuss the works of Donald Goines, author of Dopefiend, Whoreson, et cetera. At one point there was discussion about the publisher that carried Goines's work, Holloway House Publishing Company. They also were famous for carrying the prose of Iceberg Slim (Pimp, Trick Baby, etc). Phillips discussed some of the other Holloway titles and mentioned Kent Smith's Future X. When he described the story, I knew I'd have to find this book and quick.
The year is 2073. The United States has been divided with parcels of land given to African Americans. These are institutionalized ghettos, surrounded by walls, guarded, and monitored heavily by police (called "Bruisers" for their love of inflicting pain). The story follows two men living in New Watts: Ashford and Zeke. Ashford is a radical actor who presents street plays based on outlawed books such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X (his great, great grandfather). Zeke works for The Man by day (for which he gets a pass outside of the city) while running a cell of Black Radicals by night.
It's only a matter of time until the two men's paths cross. As it is, the whole book becomes "a matter of time." From the opening scene which sets up a device used by law enforcement to reverse time after a crime has occurred (where the criminal would be arrested for something they intend to do), author Kent Smith introduces a science fiction element which sounds like it might rival the "pre-crime" scenario of Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report." When Ashford and Zeke team up, they decide to hijack the time travel device and use it for resetting history, going back to 1964 and encouraging Malcolm X to initiate a Black Revolution.
When Ashford finally sees his ancestor, it's the moment when Malcolm X is stabbed in an airport bathroom. Scared out of his wits, Ashleigh pulls off the greatest performance of his life, taking over the life of X. Black Power meets the Space Time Continuum in this insightful take which draws upon Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Future X also strongly recalls Michael Moorcock's sci-fi classic, Behold the Man, in which a time traveler assumes the life of Jesus of Nazareth, bowing to a fate which seems predestined.
Holloway was a notoriously cheap publisher. It's obvious that they didn't spend much (if anything) on proofreading Smith's work. It's dotted with typos, occasional homonym abuse (perfectly understandable), and an occasional misspelling ("looser" rather than "loser"). Luckily, these are easy to overlook due to the story being so compelling.
This Week's Movie Reviews
Check out the reviews I wrote for Detour-Mag.com
Subscribe to daily email updates
Guatemalan Handshake Coming to DVD
The Great and Powerful Todd Rohal's first feature film, THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE, is getting a deluxe release from new kid on the DVD distro block, Benten Films on April 29, 2008. Packed with extras, this disc will fill your evenings with fun while keeping you out of the multiplex.
To read my interview with Todd Rohal click here.
My review from Cashiers du Cinemart #15:
THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE (Todd Rohal, 2006)
Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Slamdance, this much-anticipated film by wunderkind Todd Rohal fulfills the promise of the writer/director’s potential. Picking up where his short films, KNUCKLEFACE JONES (1999) and HILLBILLY ROBOT (2001) left off, THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE serves as another voyage into the creative and colorful mind of Rohal.
Starring Will Oldham as Donald Turnipseed, the singer/songwriter is absent through a good deal of the film, though his presence haunts nearly every scene. Donald has gone missing after an accident at a local power plant. All that’s left of him is his father’s funny little electric car—which changes hands more often than a novice poker player—memories of him, and his unborn child. Sadie (Sheila Scullin) is the baby’s momma. She’s going into her third trimester as an outcast from her family after her father, the off-kilter Ivan (Ivan Dimitrov), kicks her out of the house for being a slut. Never mind that Ivan has to use a short bus to transport his fourteen illegitimate daughters.
The film goes back and forth in time, focusing on a wide array of eccentric characters that live in anticipation, or dread, of a big demolition derby. Will Sadie drive Donald’s father’s car to victory? Will Ivan defeat her? Will Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood) ever be reunited with her friend Donald? Will Ethel Firecracker (Kathleen Kennedy) ever find her lost dog? These questions and more are woven into the rich fabric of THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE.
As to be expected from a Rohal film, nothing can be expected—with the exceptions that any boy scouts in the film will be malicious little punks and that the plot will follow logic of its own. THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE does not disappoint. It’s a pleasure cruise of an independent film.
> > Order Now
Cashiers du Cinemart: The Book?
Tonight I met with long-time CdC contributor Mike Thompson and cinephile/proofreader extraordinare Lori Higgins to discuss possibilities of a book version of Cashiers du Cinemart which would collect the "best" articles out of the last fifteen issues/fourteen years.
It was an interesting experience. I printed out a six page spreadsheet with the names and authors of every article that's been in CdC (and online-only articles, too). We had only a few groundrules going in with the biggest being: "No reprinting of articles of people who have fallen off the face of the Earth or who will give me a hard time." Otherwise, we tried to keep some themes in mind as pillars—STAR WARS, PLANET OF THE APES, Quentin Tarantino, overlooked films, interviews, unproduced screenplays, and alternate versions—and then anything else that caught our fancy. I killed most, if not all, of the book, music, and zine reviews.
I decimated a lot of the early issues, knowing that my writing back then was at its weakest (that's not to say that it's strong now). Mike had an interesting idea about the early pieces, however. He's asking that I not rewrite them in order to show some of the evolution of the magazine. Otherwise, I'd be rewriting a lot of things from the ground up. I'll already be combining and rewriting quite a lot of stuff. I also will be pulling out a few nuggets for pieces that I've been meaning to expand as well as doing some follow-ups to things that need updates.
In short, there's a lot of work ahead but it'll be a labor of love.
This Hurts
$3.47 a gallon at Costco on Sunday. I know that Americans have had it cheap for a long time but being a former gas jockey (when I was about 11 years old) this really hurts. I remember when people were freaking out over ˜$1.18 a gallon. Though, that was 25 years ago.
Thie Week's Movie Reviews
This week's movie reviews from Detour-Mag.com:
- Hero and The Terror
- Crime Wave
- Queen of Outer Space
- Kiler - DVD Release Scheduled for June 24
Subscribe to my Detour Mag Film Reviews
Is It Just Me?
Is it just me or do Eric Bana and Corey Feldman have more than a passing resemblance to one another?
Definitely Groovy: Evil Dead The Musical
I've been trying to see Evil Dead, The Musical since I first heard about it but timing never allowed it. Also, I was a little bit afraid that it would be an absolute fanboy cheesefest with clunky songs that only worked to integrate dialog from Sam Raimi's classic film trilogy.
Luckily, there's nothing clunky about Evil Dead, The Musical. It's a rather inspired work that pulls together choice bits of the first two EVIL DEAD films with dialog from ARMY OF DARKNESS (the medieval dead) and the third film's American S-Mart denouement. The plot isn't anything new to EVIL DEAD fans -- a group of twentysomethings on vacation in the spooky woods in a creepy cottage that becomes sieged by evil forces. Everything is held together by a strong musical backbone of genuinely funny songs. There are clever moments of self-reflexive commentary about the EVIL DEAD films along with critiques of the musical form. My favorite bit had to be the ever-reliable Jake (Mike Nahrgang) discussing his lack of a Bobbi Jo character due to some redundancy she would bring to the story.
All of the performers are terrific with Ryan Ward standing out as a fitting, square-jawed Ash. He's got a great set of pipes, delivers his wry lines with proper panache, and shows a terrific physicality as he takes on the slapstick stunts required. I imagine that Evil Dead The Musical would fail without a strong Ash in the mix. With Ward on stage, that will never happen.
Evil Dead The Musical has been held over at the Diesel Playhouse until at least June of 2008. I recommend you get your groove on and get over there pronto.
See More Stuff
