Falling behind on my blogging. I rewatched The Town the other night. I Also started a doc called King Corn that I need to finish.

Movie #27 Gimme Shelter

Maybe having the Hell's Angels work security for you isn't such a good idea.  That is sort of the message in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter directed by Albert and David Maysles.  The films chronicles the escapades and events that lead to the free music festival at the Altamont Speedway in 1969.  This concert production was put on mainly by the management of the band The Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane.

In the autumn of 1969 the country was still feeling the contact high left over from Woodstock earlier that summer.  Then along comes the worlds largest and most famous hard blues band The Rolling Stones.  They pictured a west coast Woodstock.  In some aspects they succeed.  Unfortunately they were all the wrong aspects.  First off there was a gross misunderstanding of how many people would be attending both festivals.  The venue was expected to hold 50-100 thousand fans.  Estimates are over 300 thousand attended.  Traffic was backed up for miles.  It is reported that it took almost a week to get the traffic flow back to normal after the show.  Another more serious screw up was concerning security.  Woodstock was a free-for-all.  The local police, state, and federal agents tried at first to contain the madness, but ultimately succumbed to it.  At Altamont the Hells Angels were brought in to police the crowd.  The film shows the brutal beating they inflicted on those in attendance.  Altamont recorded two births, 1 homicide (documented in the movie) and three accidental deaths.  One of which drowned in a storm drain overfilled with human waste.

This film works on many different levels.  It is absolutly a time capsule.  I would love to sit down with the people being documented today and get their opinions now that over 30 years has past.  The flower child movement was in full swing.  Naked bodies were gyrating around everywhere you looked.  And drugs.  Oh the drugs.  There were no shortages of every mind altering drug one could imagine.  Nor were there a shortage of people willing to consume those drugs.  This film has some of the most surreal moments I can think of.  I laughed out loud at Jerry Garcia (the lead singer of The Great Full Dead) saying "This is weird".  How screwed up is something when members of The Dead think that things are "weird"? 

The film cuts in and out of a recording studio where members of the Rolling Stones are watching footage of the happenings from that night on stage.  With in this, the Maysles present a brilliant documentary.  They seem to have their cameras in just the right place at just the right time.  If you have ever seen a Maysles brother film you know there is no narration or imposed story lines.  They are not interested in getting a point across.  They simply present the material.  It is up to the viewer to construct whatever narrative you want.  They are sorta the anti-Michael Moore.  In this film they succeed in glorious fashion.  This is now my favorite "Rock Doc".  Sorry The Last Waltz. 

The music in Gimme Shelter is good, but there are constant interruptions when fights break out in the crowd.  If you are interested in a film solely for the music I suggest you check out Ladies and Gentlemen.  The Stones Doc I reviewed last month.  The music in that film is more solid and recorded better.  If however you are interested in a full cinematic experience then this is the film for you.  I enjoy documentaries and have tremendous respect for those who make them.  In particular when you can express a personal style and artistic touches within a documentary without taking away from or imposing anything on your subject matter.  The Maysles are masters of this.  The film is shot beautifully.  The camera work is loose but skillful.  There is a constant feeling of chaos and uncertainty, all the while an undercurrent of control exists. 

Gimme Shelter is close to being a perfect film.  I would easily give it 4.5/5 stars.  And I'll cross my fingers for the Criterion Collection DVD of this movie to be under my Christmas tree this year.  For more information check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPNeh4d9guk

Movie #26 Let Me In

Remakes.  I am the first one in line to complain about Hollywood cashing in on some cheap remake of a classic or foreign film.  How many of my childhood memories are going to be spat upon by the studios.  This year alone there was a remake of Alice in Wonderland, The Karate Kid, Clash of the Titans, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Piranha and I'm sure a slew of others I am forgetting (or trying to).  If you add sequels into the mix I would be that over 50% of the movies released this year were based on some other visual source material. 

Let Me In is a remake of a Swedish film that was released in 2009 called Let the Right One In.  The original film was a much adored feature by the few thousand Americans that saw it in it's theatrical run (myself included).  It has also gained a lot of notoriety after having been released on DVD.  So why would Hollywood feel the need to remake such a little known film?  One that has a loyal all be it small fan base.  This isn't the new Harry Potter film with a legion of fans that will flock to the theater reguardless of the quality of the film.  This also isn't some cheap slasher mash up that can be thrown together for a quick opening weekend cash grab then fade away into the $5 DVD box at Wal-Mart.  The original is an art film.  The original is understated and subtle.  Things that neither Hollywood or remakes are known for.

Those are the questions that are buzzing around this film.  This film is in a "no win" situation.  Remakes are though to never be better than the original, and this isn't the type of movie that is going to draw a large audience on opening weekend.  As a matter of fact my local theater (from now on will be known as the cardboard box) opted to screen Case 39 instead.  Apparently this is a horror picture with Renee Zellweger that I have never heard of, and I hear about every movie.  Judging by the Metacritic scores they chose poorly. Case 39 = 30.  Let Me In = 80.

Let Me In stars Chloe Moretz of Kick Ass and 500 Days of Summer fame.  It also stars Kodi Smit-McPhee.  His major prior role was in last years The Road.  It also has smaller roles for Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas (who apparently has it in his contract that he must play a detective in every role).  The film is about a 12 year old boy who is a bit of an outcast.  He is brutally picked on by the school bullies.  His parents are getting a divorce and he doesn't seem to have any friends.  He meets a young girl who moves into his apartment complex.  Or at least she seems to be a young girl.  The arrival of the girl and her father coincide with some horrific murders.  

The kids forge a awkward friendship.  The girl, Abby, walks around only at night and in the snow without shoes on.  When asked if is cold her response is "I sorta don't get cold".  After watching the trailer I have decided that it is not spoiling anything to inform you that she is a vampire.  What's great about this movie and the original is that being a vampire doesn't really seem to matter that much to the young boy Owen.  It is no different than having bad acne, or a crackling voice to him.  He falls in love with her.

Allow me to say THANK GOD for R rated horror films.  I have grown sick of these PG-13 pseudo horror films.  The one's where they want to scare you, but no so much that scare off the ticket sales of the 14-18 year old demographic.  I am sick of "horror" films that are afraid to be honest with their audience.  Let Me In is R rated and terrifying.  There are no punches pulled and the film is a big success for it!

This remake is very close to the original.  You can tell the film makers had a lot of respect for Let the Right One In.  They didn't go out of the way to change a lot of things.  There is a bit more CG in the remake, some of which works, some of which doesn't.  But they didn't Americanize it too much.  They simply retold the same story in a different language in hopes a new collection of people will discover it.  It has been proven that American audiences will not attend foreign language films in the theater.  That is a shame.  I probably watch 20-30 foreign language films a year.  Not all of them work.  But with the availability of digital photography and mediums like YouTube and OnDemand services world cinema is now more accessible than ever before.  I strongly urge anyone who might read this to give the foreign language films a chance.   Heck email me and I will get you going with a "starters guide to foreign films" DVD list build specific to your tastes.

I really enjoyed Let Me In.  I think it did Let the Right One In a service.  I might even call the comparison a tie.  Anyway, this was a great weekend.  I saw my most anticipated movie of the year with my girlfriend and it lived up to expectations.  Then I was pleasantly surprised by a remake that I had concerns was going to be a thrown together mess.  I would give Let Me In a 4/5 stars.  Check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h39ikMdei4

IP MAN TRAILER

There's nothing I like better than a good butt kicking martial arts film. And this one looks like a good one.

At Show Me's waiting for Let Me In to open. Football on 20 screens. I'm blogging and listening to movie podcasts!

Movie #25 The Social Network

Late in this movie Jesse Eisenberg as co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, asks one of his defense attorneys out for a bite to eat after a long day of depositions.  She rejects him instantly.  This is the Social Network movie in a 5 second span.  To say that The Social Network is about Facebook is to say that the movie "Network" is about journalism.  The Social Network is about alienation, obsession, revenge, privilege, ambition, control, jealousy and how having friends affect those issues.  Director David Fincher weaves these themes into every scene without ever hitting you in the face with them.

The movies opens with Zuckerberg getting dumped by his girlfriend after an exhilarating all be it brutal and nasty war of words in a bar.  He goes back to his dorm and starts down a path that begins with drunken blogging and end with him being the youngest billionaire in history. He creates a site where people can rank college girls against other college girls by their "hotness".  This prank ends up crashing the Harvard servers in 2 hours after 22,000 hits.  The campus elite get word of this and recruit Zuckerberg to launch a social networking site that would be exclusive to Harvard students.  Zuckerberg takes that idea and grows it over the next few weeks into what would become The Facebook.  He is aided by his best (only) friend Eduardo Saverin, played be Andrew Garfield.  Saverin puts up the cash for the venture.  He is also being targeted by one of the campus clubs that Zuckerberg wants to be a part of.

The Facebook grows and grows.  They expand it beyond the Harvard campus into the other Ivy League schools, then nation wide using college email addresses as a means of keeping it exclusive.  You are part of a club if you are on The Facebook.  The story takes a turn once the FB team is introduced to Sean Parker.  The creator of the music stealing service Napster.  He is a familiar character.  IF not by name then by his actions.  He is the person Zuckerberg wants to be.  He is cool.  He talks fast, he orders food for everyone at the table, he is surrounded by beautiful women.  He is the antithesis of fame and success.  Although it is all an illusion.  He is broke.  He is crashing at random peoples houses. He is a leach.  Saverin sees it, Zuckerberg doesn't and Parker becomes the crowbar that will divide the two of them.

The film is brilliantly narrated through not one, but two trails Zuckerberg is a part of.  The depositions are a narrative device used to create flashbacks, all the while pushing the story forward.  The first case is Saverin suing Zuckerberg for stealing FB from him.  The other comes from the Harvard trio that claim they first come up with the idea of the social network.  Jesse Eisenberg was given a monstrous task.  Playing a character that at no time is sympathetic.  Not for one instance is the protagonist of the films looked at in a matter that would make the audience care about him.  And he does it brilliantly.  He is aided by director Fincher.  Who never misses an opportunity to exclude Zuckerberg.  In so many frames of the films Zuckerberg is on one side of the screen while everyone else is on the other.  He never once attends a party.  Not even the 1,000,000 member party for FB.  He is isolated either by choice, or by fear.  You decide which one is sadder.

Aaron Sorkin penned the script.  he is probably best know for his work on the TV show The West Wing.  I never watched that show, but I have heard that is was great. I can definitely see where it could be.  He writes the legal scenes with razor sharp jabs and prickly honesty.   He also has fully developed, flushed out characters.  Everyone's motives are clearly understood, but only when they are supposed to be.  Sorkin seem to write more in the silences than he does in the dialogue.  And that is saying something because this film is packed full of dialogue.  That opening scene is reminiscent of His Girl Friday.  I'm not sure if is refreshing, stimulating or intimidating to write a script where everyone is at a Harvard education level of speaking.  But Sorkin nails it.

I could blog about this movie for hours so I will touch on a few other things that really caught my attention.  I am sure that I will be seeing this again the theater again.  First, the score.  The music for The Social Network was composed by Trent Reznor of "Nine Inch Nails" fame.  It is dark and atmospheric.  It is the perfect accompaniment to the mood of the film.  At a couple of points in the film I thought it was a little loud.  As if it wasn't mixed quite right, but overall it was excellent.  It reminds me a lot of the music in There Will be Blood.  Not in style, but in utility.  Next would be Fincher's use of camera.  I literally gasped at a few shots in the movie.  There are only a few working directors that can get away with such bold shot selection.  Not to mention the perfect use of CGI.  How do I know it is perfect?  I couldn't find it.  Finally is the performances.  I though Eisenberg was perfect.  Garfield as Saverin seemed a little overwhelmed.  Perhaps it was because his character is a bit of a patsy.  But the performance that stood out for me was Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker.  What a great, meaty role.  The enfant terrible.  TImberlake dives headfirst into the role and it pays off in spades.

Well, I am off to go see Let Me In.  The remake of last years Sweedish film Let the Right One In.  Look for that review later today or tomorrow.  I'm sure I will be reposting about The Social Network later so look for that as well.  To view more check out the trailer below.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SocialNetworkMovie?v=53OUHupfqws&feature=pyv&ad=6836107426&kw=the%20social%20network%20trailer

At the theater for The Social Network. Review to follow.