a. fish

Movies

Grizzly Man ****1/2. Documentary. (full SF Chronicle review here.) The guy in this movie is so nutty, the movie is both fascinating and entertaining in a dark, curious, way.

One Night in Mangkok ****. Crime and cops film. Set in Hong Kong, two China mainlanders befriend each other to survive and outrun the cops. (Full SF Chronicle review here.)  Because China is becoming a central part of our lives, this Steve McQueen style classic chase film gives a quick flavor of what life is like in the country currently propping up much of our deficit.

Wheel of Time **1/2. Documentary.

Me and You and Everyone you Know ****. Comedy. (Full SF Chronicle review here.) Saw this in a full theatre, which enhanced the experience. In a few years, we will look back on this and other films which reflect the isolation so palpable in our lives today.

Slate: Hollywood shortens theatrical release window

This Slate article, Hollywood's Death Spiral,confirms my theory that the race to sell movies on DVD is creating a decline in theater ticket sales:

The [Hollywood death] spiral begins with a shortening of the delay, or "window," that separates a movie's theatrical release from its video release. In the early 1980s, in order to avoid having new movies in theaters compete against themselves in video, pay-per-view, pay TV, or free television, the studios set up a series of insulated windows for each format.

This delay between theatrical release and video is called the video window. The windows are ever shortening with time.

Pre-2001: Month 1-6 movie played in theaters only Month 7-10 movie available on VHS Month 11- movie available on pay-per-view, VHS, HBO

2001: Month 1-5 Movie played in theaters only Month 6- Movie available on DVD

2005: Month 1-3 Movie viewable on theater screen while its DVD release is already advertised Month 4- Movie available on DVD

 

Try to see it in the theater

Last night I was in the Mission district talking with some clients about an upcoming project. Somehow the subject of racism surfaced. One woman named Michelle said she was exploring all the variations of racism within the hispanic community. Being one of the few gringos there, I kept quiet at first. But then I found and angle that allowed me to join the discussion: I asked if she had seen the movie Crash, a film about alienation, prejudice and racism in modern day Los Angeles.

Michelle said Crash was "a very good commercial film." I think she called it commercial because it starred Sandra Bullock, an actress Michelle doesn't like. A few others had seen Crash, and talked about how many different ethnicities carry prejudices. Then Juan, the leader of last night's group, expressed interest and said he was going to try and see the film. I advised Juan to try to see Crash in a theatre if he could, because there will likely be multiple ethnicities in the audience watching the picture with you. That adds a dimension to this film that you will not get at home.

All the President's Men Again

Just watched the DVD of All the President's Men. I've caught this flick many a time flipping around the TNT dial, but never start to finish. Watching it this time I noticed four things.

1. Now that we know Hal Halbrook is playing Mark Felt, it's sort of like watching the movie backwards with an exclusive in on a fun secret. Lots of parts where Woodstein and the Post staff, in bafflement, speculate why the FBI is doing such a softball investigation. Dustin Hoffman asks one of his sources inside the bureau (paraphrase): "Maybe you should interview suspects WITHOUT their lawyers present, have you ever thought of that???"

2. As someone who grew up during Iran-Contra, this Watergate story reminds me that sometimes the system works. I bet it works almost 10% or even 20% of the time. Even though it went flat in the late 1980s, it may revive itself and in our lifetime, actually work again. And - AND -- the movie shows that more people (even folks inside the White House!) want it to work than want it not to.

3. Redford as Woodward is unconvincing. Unlike the man he portrays, Redford talks fast and is smooth. He failed to pronounce w-e-l-l as "waayyyyell." Makes me wonder if this man is a true actor - was he unwilling to sacrifice coolness for historical accuracy? (Also, Redford in that movie looks exactly like my brother! Bizarre. Maybe why I've never found Redford sexually attractive. No offense, E!) Jason Robards, on the other hand, was practically born to play Ben Bradlee.   

4. We're all worse off for the demise of teletype. Man those closing scenes with Nixon's second inauguration playing on the background tv, the 21 gun salute juxtaposed with the successive Woodstein stories of another and another Watergate player pounding out in all caps "SEGRETTI GUILTY" "HUGH SLOAN PLEADS GUILTY" building to a crescendo of "HALDEMAN, EIRLICHMAN GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS OF CONSPIR" with the finale "NIXON RESIGNS." A symphonic percussion climax that left this nonsmoker reaching for a pack of Luckys. What a rush it must have been to work with the kha-kha-kha  kha-kha of those machines going off sans warning! How are screenwriters going to create that kind of tension with AP stories coming up through a web browser refresh button? Just not the same.

For first-time viewers or those who watched the hearings live, this movie is recommended. That was one wacky prez!

Brad Bird: bring back the "Event Movie" of 50's and 60's.

Update: Anita Monga was the manager of the Castro theatre before being let go in December, which inspired sizeable protests. When Monga was honored at the SFIFS the night before Bird's speech, she expressed many of Bird's same sentiments.Monga was one who practiced what Bird preached. Contra Costa Times: Castro's caretaker honored has details. Info and photos provided by SF film reviewer and blogger Steve Rhodes.

Brad Bird,
by afish.

Brad Bird, writer and director of The Incredibles, summoned a packed film festival audience to get out of their DVD-playing family rooms, go back downtown and demand better showmanship from their community theatres.

Bird delivered a "State of the Film" address to a Kabuki theatre audience during last week's San Francisco International Film Festival. While Bird praised Steve Jobs as a great studio boss (The Incredibles was created by Jobs' Pixar,) he admonished studios and theatre managers for ruining the movie-going expierience.

PBS Tonight: The Ramones, End of the Century

UPDATE: It was as good as I remember. Does anyone else find Johnny, Joey and to a lesser extent Dee Dee as metaphorical for our red state/blue state divide as I do? Maybe I'm just mental, and see politics in everything now.

It will repeat this Saturday and Sunday night. Check your local listings.
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You don't have to know or even like The Ramones to enjoy this documentary, airing Tuesday and Saturday on PBS, which follows over thirty years the group that blazed a punk trail in the early to mid 1970s. You don't even have to like punk. Or rock. Or music (ok, that might be stretching it.)

This is one of those nonfiction pieces that make you wonder how the folks behind the camera got so lucky; their footage fit so neatly into the classic "arch" that Hollywood screenwriters consider a staple, and had some romance, family tension, and heartbreak to boot. Or it makes you scratch your head wondering how many other documentary filmmakers have to scrap their footage when they realize there's no story here.

Joey, Johnny, DeeDee and the rotating Ramone #4 came onto the scene when there was a real hunger for some pep, some energy, in a corner of New York known as CBGB's with a $1 cover charge. In a time dominated by lethargic folk rock, when in the words of one character, "you couldn't get laid unless you gave them some rap about macrame,"  this angry pop style that came to be known as punk was right on time, though it took a while to catch on. And took thirty years to receive proper recognition.

When the credits roll it's questionable whether this was a movie about music or culture, families or politics. This is a movie that illustrates George Lakoff's strict father model (read: Johnny) vs. caring nurturer (Joey) model and how they balance each other out, and where the fringe anarchists (DeeDee) fit in to it all. It's a film about a tenacious, even puritan work ethic. It's a film about a lot of things, under the guise of a biopic about four black-haired misfits who the world barely knows by name, but is quite familiar with what change they wrought.

Movies

Melinda and Melinda (Woody Allen) ***/5
(Comedy, plot summary at IMDB) Some good writing, hints of good performances from a few cast members (Will Ferrel did not disappoint, Amanda Peet has a promising comedic flair, Brook Smith as Cassie, played a very likeable and grounded Melinda confident  in the tragedy portion.) Ultimately, however, this was an underperforming product in need of a usability makeover. More visual cues to shift from the comedy, the cafe (narration) and the tragedy would have been good. This could be achieved with different lighting and perhaps a more be-boppy fifties wardrobe theme for the comedy. We can't cheat and make one black-and-white afterall, for that would ignore the needs of our colorblind friends.

Sin City (Robert Rodriduez) ***/5
(Action/Crime/Drama) Stylistically this film was a home run, perfectly transcribing the noir comic genre from page to screen. Great cast selection with faces the lighting director could really take advantage of: Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy with her lopsided grin (my pet peeve is a movie with too many characters that look alike, not a problem here.) Unfortunately the prosthetic makeup on Mickey Rourke's face detracted from his role. Perhaps that led to my irritation with the steady, or should I say constant, voiceover narration by his character. There was no rhythmic break in the narration, gunshots, fist fight, car chase, narration, gunshots, car chase sequence. I couldn't take the repetition and, figuring I got the basic idea, walked out. I'd be willing to rent the DVD, if only to speed through parts to find out what happens in the end. And I walked into...

Born into Brothels (Zana Brinski/Ross Kauffman) ****/5
(Documentary) I may upgrade this to five stars if I see the beginning (see Sin City, above.) Two of my favorite themes in any story, fictional or not: that we are more alike than we are different, and that providing someone with a means for self-expression is to bridge them into a new frontier. These precocious, curious, bratty and very bright ten year old photographers are so very...ten years old. That they're children of Calcutta red light district prostitutes, and expect to be put 'in the line' within a year, two at most, is secondary (as we are reminded it should be.) These kids are not a poverty demographic, they are kids: individual, mischievous, even cocky, also wise and compassionate...and hauntingly aware of the bleak probabilities their future holds. As the credits role, and the epilogue gives us some hope and inevitable disappointment, we still leave the theatre with a set of young talented friends, peers even, from across the globe.
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For more on self-expression and the new frontier: see POV's What I Want My Words to do to You as Eve Ensler leads a writing class of 15 incarcerated women. Writing doesn't just explain ideas, someone said, it also generates them. Also see Jeff Jarvis' collection of those who are blogging behind bars, particularly death row inmate Vernon introduced by TalkLeft.
For more on the wisdom and love for life only a ten year old can show us, read The SF Chronicle's Pulitzer winning story. The prize was for the photography, but would not have even be nominated without the story of Saleh, the Iraqui boy who loses his eye, both hands, and 16-year-old brother, but with his devoted and exasperated father, endures several surgeries and life changes. It was a five-kleenex read for me.