The Weekend in Review; May 22, 2018

How will I ever be able to look my film school friends in the eye and say that I didn't love Federico Fellini's 8 1/2?

I did however love the idea behind it. The concept of a semi-autobiographical film about a film that interweaves plot with the inner workings of the main character's mind is an appealing one. Fellini & co. exteriorize protagonist Guido Anselmi's (Marcello Mastroianni) private thoughts, hopes, and dreams in a seamless and oftentimes beautiful way.

Oddly enough, this is also something video games can do very well. One of the best example in recent memory are the myriad flashback/hallucination sequences in Batman: Arkham Knight.

After I finished the film I found myself wondering if this kind of thing has been done in comics before. I'm sure there are more than a few ways to inject memory/thoughts/dreams directly into the visual fabric of an individual comic panel or a series of them. It's something I'll chew on going forward.

(You can see what else I've been watching lately over at my Letterboxd page.)

***

New York City is crumbling. In many different ways. When I was young and would visit Manhattan with my parents, I thought I had arrived in Metropolis: City of Tomorrow. Now that I'm older and have sampled a variety of its locales and living situations I can say with confidence that New York City is a great big rotting organism shot through with shiny luxury condos. People run around the shell on its back, attempting to fix its disintegrating infrastructure and build skyward, but the skeleton that supports it all will one day turn to dust.

"....an examination by The New York Times has found that Mr. Lhota’s reach as a power broker has grown with new board appointments in Manhattan and on Long Island, giving him extraordinary sway over some of the most important aspects of New York life. But while Mr. Lhota remains a respected official, his growing web of jobs has led to potential conflicts of interest and competition for his time, complicating the still-flailing effort to resuscitate a transit system used by millions of people every day." -- NYT

"These apartments — seen as the scourge of landlords and the salvation of struggling New Yorkers — are at the center of a housing crisis that has swelled the ranks of the homeless and threatens to squeeze all but the affluent from ever-wider swaths of the city. But even as Mayor Bill de Blasio has made adding more affordable housing a signature pledge of his administration, the system that protects the city’s roughly one million regulated apartments is profoundly broken, a New York Times investigation has found." -- NYT

***

That's all for now, folks. Stay sharp--that is definitely not me standing outside your window.

Witness (1985)

Peter Weir makes it seem super easy in Witness. Everything, from communicating just what kind of detective Harrison Ford’s John Book is to establishing the (admittedly simple) good cop vs. bad cop plot, is done with such economy that it can easily be taken for granted. Weir also knows when to rachet the tempo up. Book and Kelly McGillis’s Rachel fall in love slowly, gracefully, their feelings accumulating over time, so that when they finally embrace it causes an explosion of passion on screen (it helps that Ford is one of the best looking leading men in cinematic history). The final showdown works much in the same way, only with shotguns instead.

But it’s John Seale’s camera work that sets this film apart. His compositions, like Weir’s direction, are the result of a light touch. Door frames, windshields, exposed beams in a simple Amish kitchen—Seale uses the shapes created by these unassuming items to frame his figures in a way that makes it seem like that’s what the items were designed for in the first place. He opts for intense close ups whenever he can, as Ford and McGillis’s performances verge into nonverbal territory often. Seale excels at capturing the nearly imperceptible gestures and stolen glances  that seem small onscreen but in fact do a great deal of heavy lifting for plot and performance alike.

“Capturing” is the operative word. In many scenes, especially those that examine the day to day life of the Pennsylvania Amish, Seale exhibits the skills of a documentarian, his eye focused on his subjects without bias nor judgment.

The Weekend in Review; April 30, 2018

Wow, The Weekend in Review is back? That's crazy!

I, like all 7 billion people on planet Earth, saw Avengers: Infinity War. Here are my thoughts:

1. Post-credits sequences are a form of terrorism. I understand the idea behind them--it's important that the mouth breathers understand that their favorite punchy-punch, talky-talk movies are made by an army of invisible artists and technicians--but, predictably, it doesn't work at all. As soon as the credits role, those savvy filmgoers looking for that "second screen experience" pull out their phones to check and see if anyone has sent them an image of their engorged genitalia on Snapchat. They only look up from their poorly-lit anatomy lessons after the last Eyelash De-Aliasing Supervisor has disappeared from the screen. So just play the stupid commercial for the next movie right after the marquee names roll off the screen.
2. Why is Chris Pratt billed as "And Chris Pratt?" Have those shitty Jurassic Park sequels turned him into a young "And Anthony Hopkins?"
3. STRANGELY enough, Doctor Strange was the MVP in this movie. When he took on his multi-armed form I gasped with STRANGE delight.
4. When and how did Bruce Banner get Hulk-tile dysfunction?
5. Approximately 25% of those in attendance during my showing got up to go to the restroom at various times. Since missing the famous "Living Manifestation of Destiny" speech in Mission: Impossible 5 for urine-based reasons, I no longer leave movies for any reason, ever. In order to pull this off I have developed a patent-pending dehydration technique that is 100% effective. Step 1: Stop fluid consumption no later than 2 hours prior to a film's start time. Step 2: Urinate repeatedly leading up to film's start time. Step 3: Once the film has begun, slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, rehydrate out of the film with the beverage of your choice (now that I'm 30, it's Diet Coke for me). Step 4: Enjoy. (Also works for air travel).
6. Having Peter Dinklage play a giant "dwarf" was certainly a choice.
7. The Russos have a knack for realistic action in their superhero films. By that I don't mean that everything looks real, because it certainly doesn't, but rather that characters behave and perform their superhero karate chop action in a way that seems realistic. Case in point: Captain America's shield never bounces quite as convincingly outside of a Russo Brothers Joint. The fisticuffs in Captain America: Civll War, namely the Cap/Bucky/Black Panther 3-way chase and the Iron Man showdown in the finale are bone-crunching, kinetic displays of violence. While Infinity War leans too heavily on the CGI for the fights to feel as hard-hitting as they do in some of the previous outings, that illusion of realism still powers most, if not all, of its action.
8. Carrie Coons voicing Lady Voldemort was a meta-joke on the whole Leftovers-style ending of this movie, right?
9. From a purely technical perspective, this movie is an unmatched feat in story engineering. I was delighted to see how a film featuring 30 characters, 6 magic rocks (that each perform a specific task), and the loose threads of a dozen movies worked so well. However, because of the sheer amount of characters, each picking up little bits and pieces of the narrative along the way, the film lacked emotional focus in a broad sense. 
10. Marvel has been eating DC's lunch for 10 straight years. That must really smart.

Everything that I watched, read, listened to, played, & wrote in 2017

1. Film

(2017)

Silence; d. Martin Scorcese, w. Jay Cocks, Martin Scorcese 

John Wick: Chapter 2*; d. Chad Stahelski, w. Derek Kolstad

Get Out; d. & w. Jordan Peele 

Logan; d. James Mangold, w. James Mangold, Scott Frank, Michael Green  

Kong: Skull Island; d. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, w. Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly 

Power Rangers; d. Dean Israelite, w. John Gatins, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Michele Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney 

The Fate of the Furious; d. F. Gary Gray, w. Chris Morgan 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; d. & w. James Gunn 

Alien: Covenant; d. Ridley Scott, w. Jack Paglen, Michael Green, John Logan, Dante Harper

Wonder Woman; d. Patty Jenkins, w. Allan Heinberg, Zack Snyder, Jason Fuchs 

The Big Sick; d. Michael Showalter, w. Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani 

Baby Driver*; d. & w. Edgar Wright 

Spider-Man: Homecoming; d. John Watts, w. Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers 

War for the Planet of the Apes; d. Matt Reeves, w. Mark Bomback, Matt Reeves 

Dunkirk; d. & w. Christopher Nolan  

Atomic Blonde; d. David Leitch, w. Kurt Johnstad 

Wind River; d. & w. Taylor Sheridan

Logan Lucky; Steven Soderbergh 

Ingrid Goes West: d. Matt Spicer, w. David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer 

Good Time*; d. & w. Benny & Josh Safdie

Human Flow; d. Ai Weiwei, w. Chin-Chin Yap, Tim Finch, Boris Cheshkirov 

It; d. Andy Muschietti, w. Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman 

American Made; d. Doug Liman, w. Gary Spinelli

Jerry Before Seinfeld; d. Michael Bonfligio, w. Jerry Seinfeld 

Blade Runner 2049*; d. Denis Villeneuve, w. Hampton Fancher, Michael Green 

Spielberg; d. Susan Lacy 

The Babysitter; d. McG, w. Brian Duffield 

Brawl in Cell Block 99*; d. & w. S. Craig Zahler 

The Lost City of Z; d. & w. James Gray

Thor: Ragnarok; d. Taika Waititi, w. Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost 

Lady Bird; d. & w. Greta Gerwig 

Justice League; d. Zack Snyder & Joss Whedon, w. Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder 

The Disaster Artist; d. James Franco, w. Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber

Star Wars: The Last Jedi; d. & w. Rian Johnson 

(*Top 5)

(1974-2016)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre; d. Tobe Hooper, w. Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper 

Barry Lyndon; d. & w. Stanley Kubrick 

All the President's Men; d. Alan J. Pakula, w. William Goldman 

Midnight Run; d. Martin Brest, w. George Gallo 

Sex, Lies, and Videotape; d. & w. Steven Soderbergh 

The Fugitive; d. Andrew Davis, w. Jeb Stuart, David Twohy

Tombstone; d. George P. Cosmatos & Kevin Jarre, w. Kevin Jarre 

Before Sunrise; d. Richard Linklater, w. Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan 

The Game; d. David Fincher, w. John Brancato, Michael Ferris 

Out of Sight; d. Steven Soderbergh, w. Scott Frank 

The Thirteenth Warrior; d. John McTiernan & Michael Crichton, w. William Wisher, Warren Lewis  

The Limey; d. Steven Soderbergh, w. Lem Hobbs 

Traffic; d. Steven Soderbergh, w. Stephen Gaghan 

Before Sunset; d. Richard Linklater, w. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan 

Shaun of the Dead; d. Edgar Wright, w. Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright 

Memories of Murder; d. Joon-ho Bong, w. Joon-ho Bong, Sung-bo Shim 

Pulse (Kairo); d. & w. Kiyoshi Kurosawa 

Marie Antoinette; d. & w. Sophia Coppola 

Hot Fuzz; d. Edgar Wright, w. Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright 

Super; d. & w. James Gunn

Before Midnight; d. Richard Linklater, w. Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke 

The Mermaid; d. Stephen Chow, w. Hing-Ka Chan, Stephen Chow, Chi Keung Fung, Miu-Kei Ho, Ivy Kong, Si-Cheun Lee, Zhengyu Ly, Kan-Cheung Tsang 

Swiss Army Man; d. & w. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert 

Train to Busan; d. Sang-ho Yeon, w. Joo-Suk Park, Sang-ho Yeon 

The Magnificent Seven; d. Antoine Fuqua, w. Nic Pizzolatto, Richard Wenk 

Dr Strange; d. Scott Derrickson, w. Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill 

Moonlight; d. Barry Jenkins, w. Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney 

Edge of Seventeen; d. & w. Kelly Fremon Craig 

Nocturnal Animals; d. & w. Tom Ford 

La La Land; d. & w. Damian Chazelle 

20th Century Women; d. & w. Mike Mills 

2. Television

(Arranged by air date of most recent season)

The Knick Seasons 1-2; Jack Amiel, Michael Begler & Steven Soderbergh 

Big Little Lies; David E. Kelley 

Rick and Morty Season 3; Justin Roiland & Dan Harmon 

The Leftovers Seasons 1-3, Damon Lindelof & Tom Perrotta 

Silicon Valley Season 4; Mike Judge, John Altschuler & David Krinksy 

Master of None Season 2; Aziz Ansari & Alan Yang 

Game of Thrones Season 7; David Benioff & D.B. Weiss 

Stranger Things Season 2; The Duffer Brothers 

3. Literature & Comics

Childhood's End; Arthur C. Clarke 

The Stars My Destination; Alfred Bester 

Time and Again; Jack Finney 

The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made, Revised and Expanded Edition; David Hughes 

Superman: The Unauthorized Biography; Glen Weldon 

Between the World and Me; Ta-Nahisi Coates 

But What If We're Wrong?; Chuck Klosterman

Normal; Warren Ellis 

The Wild Storm #1-5; Warren Ellis & Jon Davis-Hunt 

PayWall; Joseph P Kelly 

Grand Theft Imagination; Benjamin Andrew Moore 

4. Music

Greatest Hits; Fleetwood Mac 

On Avery Island; Neutral Milk Hotel  

Cage The Elephant; Cage The Elephant  

Humbug; Arctic Monkeys 

Thank You Happy Birthday; Cage the Elephant  

Suck It and See; The Arctic Monkeys 

AM; The Arctic Monkeys

Melophobia; Cage the Elephant  

To Pimp a Butterfly; Kendrick Lamar 

Tell Me I'm Pretty; Cage the Elephant  

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions; Bruce Springsteen  

Damn; Kendrick Lamar 

5. Videogames

Wolfenstein: The New Order; MachineGames 

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood; MachineGames 

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Nintendo 

6. What I wrote/created

Red's Journey; ClearVision Optical

Rabbit Hole #1; Self-published

World War Terminus; Self-published

The Cycle; Self-published

The Redemption of Super-Champion Barron Drumpf Parts 1 & 2; Study Group Comics

The Drakul Wedding; Self-published

Whatever Happened to the Superhero Writers of Tomorrow & Other Articles; Paste Magazine 

5 Rick and Morty Mind-Bending Season 3 Mysteries; Quidd