Headhunters

directed by Morten Tyldum (2011)

My first impression with this film was geez, this is ripe for a remake with Tom Cruise as the greedy art thief.

My second impression?  I didn't think much of the set up.  It's got a corporate headhunter, (Aksel Hennie), who steals and sells art work, because he's got to keep up with the beyond his means lavish lifestyle his blonde trophy wife is accustomed to.  He's a pragmatic, amoral, sort,  and his art thieving is not much different from his day job where he looks for executives to poach, usually stealing them out from under the employ of one corporation for another.  The relative poverty driving the artwork snatch and sell sidejob, is not a situation most people can relate to; "Oh no I can't afford the payments on my luxury mansion or luxury car!"  Actually a whole lot of people can relate to not being able to afford the lifestyle they have,  it's just that the lifestyle he felt he needed to maintain was a bit much.

As the plot unspooled I was feeling all sneery about seeing another story about rich white people, and thinking, "fuck these greedy resource pigs and their stupid money problems!",  because greed and lavish lifestyles like you see at the upper echelons of society, rather than impressing me, more tends to disgust me. Excessively excessive is just plain fucked up.  The other day a friend was telling me about a guy who renovated his G5 jet so all the surfaces were gold plated or marble.  He spent x amount of dollars, untold millions, I guess, and for what?  So his JET was shiny?

Jesus.  Of course it's Donald Trump's jet.

The movie got better though.  It's got good heists with twisty drama, and what I appreciated most, aside from the great cinematography, was the moral thread running through it. The protagonist is interesting too.  He's vulnerable; his narration reveals his weaknesses,  and that's what got me to liking him.  The movie had been hyped to me though, so it took me awhile before my expectations wound down and I got into it for what it was - a well shot action/crime story with some characters growing.   Near to the beginning,  I turned to my guy and said, I don't LIKE anybody in this film.  They're all selfish fucks.  Pretty standard character types for noir type works, but this one also has some redemptive realistic qualities in the characters, except when it comes to the antagonist, (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).  He was a little too much of a phony baloney, comic book, super soldier, spy guy, human monster, stereotype for my taste.  Still, all criticism aside, it was a good ride, and I liked how it ended.

I think in the remake, they'll do it from the perspective of the bad guy and have him triumph, because greed is still good in the eyes of the majority of the haves making media in America.

Bernie

directed by Richard Linklater (2011)

I went into this cold, knowing only that it starred Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey and I think that is the BEST way to see this movie - knowing nothing about it AT ALL.  It will suprise you and isn't that one of the greatest things in life - when something surprises you?  When a movie can do that, it's like a present you weren't even expecting.

So don't read anymore if you ain't seen it yet, because now I'm gonna head into spoiler territory.  (Don't watch the trailer - it pretty much tells you everything that happens.)

It's a based on a true story of a 1996 murder in Texas.  I thought it was a regular old made up story, and when I realized at the end, that it really happened, and that those townspeople were the actual spectators to the incident talking about a real person and a real murder, well I was just delighted.  Not that this awful crime took place - it was a terrible thing Bernie did -  more that this movie was made ya know?  The best most genius part was having how the interviews with the townspeople were intermingled with the recreations of the relationship between Bernie and Marjorie.

It's such a great story too, like they tagline says, "A story so unbelievable it must be true."  And I thought it was so appropriate how it was structured, starting off showcasing Bernie's unbelievable goodness.  You can't help but like and root for Bernie.  Even though he shot an old lady 4 times IN THE BACK, then stuffed her in a freezer, you still want to forgive him.  It shine's a light on this peculiar aspect of the human condition - how prejudiced we all are, and how easily we can be swayed to forgive when we like a person.   With our friends, or people who are likeable, we'll want to cut them slack,  and give them a break, but for people we don't like, or who we can't relate to?  All those wrongdoers?? Well they can go to hell.

It's the American way, well acually it's the way most people are the world over.  Unfortunately, as a people, we are highly and irrationally prejudicial.

It's a good flick.  Well worth your time.  I really enjoyed it. I also thought Jack Black's role would have been great for Zach Galifianakis.

Higher Ground

directed by Vera Farmiga (2011)

This is Vera Farmiga's directorial debut, and she also stars in this exploration of faith and religion.  It's based on the book, This Dark World, a memoir authored by Carol S. Briggs.  It has the mundane ordinariness of a real person's story rather than the high drama of made up conflict, but that doesn't make it less interesting.  In fact I found it a very rewarding watch.  The heart of the flick centres on Corinne Walker's (Farmiga) struggle with faith, belief, and dogma.  The film tracks her religious journey starting right from childhood when she accepts Jesus into her heart at bible camp.  I could relate to that scene.  I went to bible camp the summer I was 10, and I felt such pressure there to embrace a fundamentalist faith.  I wanted to believe so bad I almost convinced myself I did.  I so wanted to belong to that Christian cult, and I really did want Jesus to live in my heart too.  I remember how they told me how I'd burn in hell if I didn't believe, and that saddled me with guilt and shame. I didn't want to be a sinner damned to hell.  I felt inadequate and ashamed because I bought into their propaganda, but when they told me I was a sinner, that only resonated because I already felt unsure of myself.  That's the default mode of the modern human condition,  and it's part and parcel of growing up that you feel inadequate and unsure of who you are or how to define yourself.  And that uncertainty and fear and plasticity of identity is what religion, especially Christianity capitalises on, at least the more fundamentalist branches of Christianity really push that whole shame thing down your throat with the idea of original sin.

And what is up with original sin anyhow?  It seems like such contrived bullshit to me.  The idea is just silly! When I see animals or children doing their thing,  the absurdity of sin as a concept becomes so obvious, because kids and animals are just natural, and wild, and free, and sin has no place in their actions.  I don't thin either kids or animals ponder much on the morality of their actions.  Perhaps they do, but original sin?  Come on, that idea seems entirely man made.  In fact, morals, ethics, all that jazz, are just so much ideas and abstraction borne of self aware consciousness.

Back to the movie though...

Vera has a whole lot happen in her life, not big bad things, just general life kinda stuff that makes her question religion and the validity of doubt, or rather the validity of faith.  At least that's what I got out of the film.  There's a great scene at the end where she does a monologue on her gradual acceptance of her doubt, and to me that was much more liberating and enlightening than the dogmatic ritual of the faithful could ever be.  I even agreed with her envy of their faith. I used to wish I could have that comfort and assuredness that seems to come with belief.  I just don't seem to have that in me though.

Yeah, I am a doubting Thomas, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.  In fact, I think there's a whole lot more right with being a doubter than there is right about being a believer.  I could be wrong about that, but it's not that important.  I'm content being a questioner; it fits me better than zealotry.

I liked the soundtrack a whole lot too..  There's a bunch of gospel musics, many of them sung by Ollabelle and the lovely voiced Amy Helm. 

Farmiga sings some too and she's got a good voice as well, but what I've always noticed first about her is the way she looks.  Not to take away from her achievements as an actor/director, either.  I just think she's gorgeous and that her looks would fit well in period pieces.  I always get the feeling of the past and art models when I see her, a Pre-Raphaelite or maybe a Vermeer.  She's a Botticelli on the band-shell, performing gospels in the this flick.

Footloose (2011)

directed by Craig Brewer (2011)

The town that banned dancing!  This is a ridiculous premise for a movie, but I guess when you're doing remakes from the 80's you're forced to stay within the confines of whatever terrible concept.  I mean, you don't absolutely have to, some remakes only borrow the name to bring brand familiarity to the game.  This remake is not one of those though.  Too bad. It could have been about a dude who dances his way across America in a wheelchair after a terrible tour in Iraq,  or maybe a guy who couldn't stop dancing, like in that fairytale The Red Shoes. Or even a thiller solving the mystery of all the feet washing up on the shores of B.C.

Whatever, I don't remember the original very well except for the song and Kevin Bacon dancing around in tight jeans and cowboy boots to the Kenny Loggins' song.  I have vague recollections of the plot.

Actually, watching the remake revived more memories, like it was John Lithgow doing the preacher dude, I mean he wasn't doing him haha,  just portraying him.  This time it was Dennis Quaid playing the holy roller, and I kept thinking that it was kind of appropriate that Jerry Lee Lewis got all religious and turned his back on rock and roll.

I don't remember why the town banned dancing in the original, but I'm assuming it's because of a terrible drinking and driving auto wreck which wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been dancing before that to loosen the morals of the kids towards all that boozing for sexy time made them forget about how stupid it is to drink and drive, at least that's what happens in the remake.  The accident is pretty shocking.  I didn't expect it because I forgot that it was about a town that banned dancing and I was just enjoying the opening party dancing scene.  Gotta gotta cut loose.  I have to tell you it was a pretty harsh contrast and brought the start of the movie way down low.

When the Kevin Bacon replacement (Kenny Wormald) goes to school and almost gets into a fight with a tall hayseed, (Miles Teller),  I suddenly remembered, oh yeah, Christopher Penn  (RIP) played the local, because this guy is totally doing Christopher Penn doing that hayseed part.  It was my fave part of the movie.  Hayseed don't know how to dance so he's got to learn in a montage sequence, first the Kevin Bacon replacement's little cousins are teaching him their cute little girl dance moves - I guess they know the moves from watching TV or the kids teach each other, dance knowledge was only suppressed 3 years back, so I dunno, these girls are young, they probably only remember a town without dancing so dance osmosis potential has got to be the highest at their young age.   Whatever, it's a cute sequence, him all bumbly toed and then bringing it home with proper line dancing and what not.  I liked him the best in the film. Christopher Penn replacement, you dun good.

IMO, for a movie about kids being all footloose, there is too much emphasis on NON-dancing.  I know this is a town that banned dancing and the kids have to dance in secret, like the drive in hoedown, (btw it was kinda ridiculous that the old dude was smuggling in the crunk sounds - did this town ban the internets too?)  I just think there should have been more depictions of secret dance clubs and West Side Storyesque dance fighting or something, because the replacement activity - reckless car driving at the track, was not as much fun.  I mean it was OK, just I didn't expect Fast and Furious in the fields ya know?  And really, not as many people can race cars as can dance.  And the only racing that has a plot point is actually school bus racing which is not that fast to be honest.

The movie is dumb, but it's based on a dumb movie.  It's fun, but it has stretches of boredom and eye rollery stupid dialogues.  I particularly liked "You're hotter than socks on a rooster." I think the original was the same though.  Still I think the original is probably better.  The 80's version has better acting, but less dancing, though more iconic dancing I'm guessing.  I'm not sure though, the angry dance scene in the remake is maybe better, for sure more over the top with the emotive expression.  He is really venting with his choreography. They are both campy, so probably hit the old one if you're a retro hound with principles of holding out against the future or if you're feeling the 80's and want to see old stars when they were young. Check the remake if you want to hear remixes of the old tunes and  see new stars before they fizzle or shoot up or  should that be out? Who knows, both probably, this is the folks what live in n Hollyweird, and odds are some of these folk will end up in rehab.   Not Miles Teller I hope.  He's got a bright future I'd bet.

Albert Nobbs

directed by Rodrigo García (2011)

Wtf is up with killing off the fags?  I know, Glenn Close was portraying a transman, not a fag, but it's still a case of smear the queer ain't it?  I'm sick of queer flicks that focus on the otherness of the minority.  Albert Nobbs is another tragic homo story that fails. fails. fails.

I'm gonna spoil the fuck out of it so fair warning eh?  Also I'm gonna use words like fag and queer and homo, so don't get your panties in a bunch about that, because I like reclaiming slurs in the context of writing about queer bashing, and I think this movie is a queer bashing queer basher, a basher of oddness, and not just the homosexual kind.

It's written by István Szabó the same guy who directed Sunshine, and he's a rich guy so he's got the knowledge of how high society operates, with the help churning away beneath the surface maintaining the facade of invisibility for the folk that makes their existences so comfortably liveable.  Servants should be unseen and unheard and their needs and desires inconsequential, of course, yes sir, yes ma'am.

The doctor, (Brendan Gleeson), was a man who worked, so he was a go between to the world of the servants and the ruling classes.   He ran off with his lover, because he was tired of secrets, and this was about the only point in the film that I liked.  Yes, we should all shrug of the expectations of others that impede our own paths to true happiness.  This is a message worth making a movie about,  but what was the impetus for his upending the facade of his life to pursue his dream?  The death of Albert.  What  kinda message is that?   Yeah, you go for that glory, chase down your dream, but if you're an odd duck queer, well you'll just have to die so we can cherish that notion of LGBT being sooo soo sad, and geez but they're strange too right?  I wish the movie had been different.  I wish it had a happy ending for Albert.  I wish he had been written more charming and less othered and odd.  "He's a dear sweet man" says the woman he's in love with, (Mia Wasikowska), but she's got her own agenda and manipulates that sweetness for her own gain.

And what is up with making Albert be so strange and socially awkward?  Was it a function of class?  I liked the class issues the movie raised, the degradation, exploitation and desperation of the working stiffs was spot on, especially contrasted with how the asshole rich folk were so comfortable treating poorer folk as less than, and less than human even.  Disrespecting sons a bitches!!

Why was Albert was such a clueless sheltered sort?  He wants to move in with Mr. Page, (Janet McTeer), and he doesn't even know him, the man just lost his wife, (Bronagh Gallagher), and Nobbs is completely tone deaf to that.  Why oh why do I have to keep seeing queers on film being born SO different.  Queers are NOT so different, except that they're queer ya know? There's a whole rainbow of variety in land of the queer, just like there is in the rest of society, and constantly creating work about how DIFFERENT homo folk are is just so fucking trite and boring.

Jaysus, as Mr. Page would say.

I wish I'd seen a romantic tale of the transman painter Mr. Page and the story of how he got together with his wife, (Bronagh Gallagher). Or even better, Mr. Nobbs successfully romancing the maid, charming her, and settling down with her happily ever after in the tobacco shop.  What's wrong with a happy story anyhow?

I was expecting the wastrel Joe, (Aaron Johnson), to rob Mr. Nobbs and run off to America, ditching the pregnant maid Mr. Nobbs was courting.  Nobbs could still have saved the day,  but Nooo!!!  He had to be killed off, by off all things, a bump to his head?!! The bit about his life's wages getting scooped up by that bitch of a boss just added to the bitter fail.  Sure Mr. Page came to the rescue of the maid and her little Albert Joseph, but fuck that!  That was Albert's dream. He deserved better than the legacy of a name to a baby he never got to meet.  I know it was an adaptation of a play, but keyword here -- ADAPTATION.  Glenn Close, you did a good job being him, but you could have written him the hero of his own story.  You coulda written him a little better ending, a little better life, but I guess it gets better just doesn't apply to Mr. Nobbs.


I'm leery of proposing the idea of an authentic voice in the creation of fictional stories, but in this case I think the lack of respect shown for the character of Mr. Nobbs is one born of that disconnect of experience in creation.  Somebody was imagining what it's like to be trans, and made this mishmashness of queertransphobia.  Do we really need more bullshit fiction that perpetuates the casual homophobia of the other and the idea that a queer's destiny is bound to be tragic?  I doubt that a transgendered person would have made a flick this heterosexist, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what the formerly known as the Wachowski Bros. come up with next.  I but they'd do a stellar job with a transgender character study.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

directed by Morgan Spurlock (2011)

Sell sell sell!!! Buy buy buy!! Would you like brands with that?

Supersize Me Spurlock makes a documentary about branding and product placement, by explicating the process.  That's the whole enchilada.  He films everything, his research, interviews with ad men and agents, the pitch sessions to the various companies he lands time with,  and so on. 

It's a simple idea and effectively shows how compromised the end result naturally is, because companies won't give money to anything that challenges the image they are trying to create, nor to their bottom line.  They don't care about art at all.  What they want is to create desire for their product.  Whatever kind of media that takes on sponsors, or product placement, is completely beholden to the sponsors, and the companies are comfortable demanding changes that fit their ideas of  how their product should be showcased.  It becomes a case of the tail wagging the dog, because money talks and the companies make sure to spell every aspect of what they want in the contract before the filmmakers get paid.  And what's crazy is this is the norm, and it doesn't sound unreasonable until you see how MUCH of it is going on in every business everywhere, and it's even infiltrating the public sector. 

Advertising!!!!

It just might be teh devil.

My favourite part of the film is when he goes to São Paulo.  In 2007, advertising was banned.  It was amazing seeing a city without ads everywhere.  In interviews, business keepers explained that they've had to rely on word of mouth instead of ads to bring in business.  Commerce wasn't destroyed.  Advertising could be curtailed, but I don't think people are even aware of that possibility as something worth considering.

It's an interesting idea though.

 

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas - 3D

directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (2011)

It was amusing, especially considering I no longer fall within the target stoner demographic and I wasn't high. Stoners are pretty easy to entertain and I bet the 3D would have been that much more impressive for those that partook before hand. There's one section that's essentially a commercial for the technology. Step right up and getchur 3D TVs folks!

Aside from the running gag with the baby accidentally getting messed up on various drugs, it was chock full of decent fambly values. I liked Elias Koteas as the Russian gangster boss, but none of the other characters stood out much.  Oh yeah Patton Oswalt was funny, but he was barely in it.  I thought I'd like Danny Trejo's character more, but ehn, ethnic stereotypes kinda irk me. Actually, this flick is full of that kinda shtick, so I tried not to notice all the irksome bits. I couldn't help it though, because even though I was deliberately grading this flick on a curve for obnoxiousness, there were quite a few irksome bits related to sexuality that I didn't like. The bit with the guy wanting to get with the slutty virgin who couldn't get any was bleagh, also I didn't like Harold's replacement best friend who got stuck in the closet - was that some kind of joke about him being closeted? And I really disliked the continued use of the pathetic "star" cameo character - Neal Patrick Harris as Neal Patrick Harris and, you know what? He's not gay, that's just a ploy so he can manipulate his way into getting women to trust him so he can make super sleazy moves on them because he's just that fucking horny and unethical. These scenes making light of the dynamic of sexual assault were gross and off putting. Rape is not very funny, neither is lying about rape, but that was another scene and I don't want to go break down what all was messed up about that one. I guess I'll just end my criticism of this flick's sexual offences with this: sexuality issues can be amusing, but it's pretty easy to cross the line into offensive and insensitive.