Tribute video for Robert Culp
Michael Louie04.13.10
This is a still image I took from the tribute video for Robert Culp’s memorial service this past weekend at the Egyptian…
Bong Joon-ho’s Mother
Michael Busk04.07.10
Influenced by Hitchcock and David Lynch, Bong Joon-ho has made a series of films that blend horror, suspense and dark comedy to comment upon Korean society and human nature. In his latest, Mother, an older woman defends her developmentally disabled son when he is falsely accused of murder by a lazy and corrupt small town police force. Bong takes this seemingly feel-good premise and turns it into one of the most surprising and unsettling films in recent memory. His use of inventive cinematography often tricks the viewer’s eye, a fitting choice for a film that is in the end about our ability to deceive ourselves.
“GENTLEMEN, GENTLEMEN…” Brief Times With Robert Culp
Michael Louie03.26.10
I read this motto today in the LA Times: "Gentlemen, gentlemen, be of good cheer, for they are out there and we are in here." It’s a great toast by men of character and taste; the words attributed to actor Robert Culp and spoken by the likes of Hugh Hefner. Unfortunately I had to read this in the Times’ obituary for Robert, who died Wednesday after falling outside of his home. Robert was the father of a good friend of mine, a friend himself, and part of what I considered my surrogate West Coast family. I was always welcome in his house and his generosity and class were unmatched. It’s a sorrowful farewell to a man who was a great friend to many, though I remain thankful that chin had such powerful genetics.
Corey “The Haimster” Haim is Dead
Michael Louie03.11.10
By now you’ve probably heard. Corey "The Haimster" Haim is dead. He was 38 and had lost something…
Tastes Good Still? Oscars 2010
Benjamin Strong03.08.10
We are so bitchy we’ll never get any star interviews…oh well. As Ben Strong elucidates: "The Oscars exist for the sole purpose of Hollywood’s identity maintenance." But the Academy didn’t need Avatar to win to prove anything to itself. ‘Cause The Hurt Locker "more closely resembles Hollywood’s image of itself than do blue people." Alas, it ended with historic precedents. And George Clooney had a hockey haircut, ha….and Ben Strong gives Fanzine’s annual second take opinion on the event. (What we are hoping for in the future? I’m not sure…but I wouldn’t mind seeing Rob Lowe take another stab at some song and dance, cracked out Disney style. -CM)
From Party Animals to Gilt Queens to a New Hollywood Dame: Oscars 2010
Kevin Killian03.08.10
Some changes in the Oscars over the years, and especially this year – 2010 sees 10 best picture noms as opposed to 5, a woman winning best director, and no gilded Miramax flick in the bunch, right? Except that “damned Helen Mirren” still got unwanted attention from co-host Steve Martin. Kevin Killian notes what has changed and looks back on a man who maybe got the Oscar show rolling in a new direction long ago, Allan Carr, who once ruled the Hollywood party scene and blew it all on a weird Snow White night. There’s a new book out about him by Robert Hofler called Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.
Kim Ji-woon’s Tale of Two Sisters
Emily Carter03.03.10
Alfred Hitchcock either popularized or created the term "MacGuffin" to describe any highly valued object that sets the plot in motion: the ticking bomb, top secret microfilm or the stolen necklace. Is it a stretch to say that in a romantic comedy, the completion of the romantic union is a type of MacGuffin? U.S. films often trot out romantic or sexual union as kind of plot device, while several Korean films I’ve seen seem to use the re-completion of the family unit as one of the central concerns. Director Bong Joon-ho’s excellent 2006 swamp monster film, The Host revolves around a family getting their daughter back after she’s been eaten by a giant mutant squid and dragged into the sewers. (Fittingly, Bong’s latest film which opens next month is titled Mother.) Kim Ji-woon’s particularly unpleasant depiction of "blended" family life, oddly helped Emily Carter, author of Glory Goes and Gets Some, to heal the wounds in her own.
Oscars are coming, but Valentines first. Cook some Child!
Casey McKinney02.12.10
Oscars are coming, but Valentines first. Cook some Child!
Rob Nilsson and Cine Manifest at Anthology Film Archives
Nancy Keefe Rhodes01.22.10
This week (Jan 21. through the 28th) at New York City’s Anthology Film Archive come the films of award winning director Rob Nilsson and Cine Manifest, San Francisco’s 1970s Marxist film collective. Nancy Keefe Rhodes gives an exhaustive yet breathless preview of the films screened at AFA. But even if you aren’t in New York, you can get many on Netflix, from your favorite indie movie store, or buy them from the source; so read up, watch, and learn how Nilsson, the octogenarian everyman, demurs his stance over time, favoring art over politics.
Film: Aristide and the Endless Revolution
Casey McKinney01.14.10
First of all donate to the American Red Cross and PIH if you want to help the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti (but ignore the texting…
