Exit Through The Gift Shop - Tim

Nominated for an Oscar, Exit Through the Gift Shop is either a doc-, mock-, or prank-umentary, depending on who you ask. If it's a documentary, it's about French video-maniac Thierry Guetta making a shitload of money by stealing streetart from the likes of Invader, Shepard Fairey and Banksy himself and totally selling out. The lesson: Capitalism = evil.

If it's a mockumentary, it's about how little talent it takes to make a crapload of money in the world of pop art. The lesson: If you're willing to pay thousands of bucks for a Madonna album cover, it's your own fault.

If it's a mockumentary, it's not so much about how stupid pop art buyers are, but how stupid we are for believing anything as long as it's on a screen (see Fox News watchers). The lesson: Haha, we even fooled the Academy.

Doc, moc, prank - what do I think it is? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. All I know is it takes the piss out of counterfeit artists and in the most hilarious fashion. Might as well call it a fuckyoumentary.

Nicolas (Coppola) Cage - A Life Doing Work

It is not possible for me to make clear how awesome Cage really is. I'll leave it to others.

"Cage was born in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, was a professor of literature; Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, is a dancer and choreographer."

"Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman."

"To avoid the appearance of nepotism as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, he changed his name early in his career to Nicolas Cage, inspired in part by the Marvel Comics superheroLuke Cage."

"Cage has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, winning once for his performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. His other nomination was for his portrayal of real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's fictional twin Donald in Adaptation. Despite these successes, most of his lower-profile films have performed poorly at the box office compared to his mainstream action/adventure roles."

"I feel I've made a lot of movies already and I want to start exploring other opportunities that I can apply myself to, whether it's writing or other interests that I may develop."

"Herzog has found his ideal interpreter, a performer whose truth lies deep in the artifice of performance: ladies and gentlemen, Nicolas Cage, at his finest."

"Cage has created a comic book with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child, which is published by Virgin Comics. Cage is an avid comic book fan, and once auctioned a collection of 400 vintage comics through Heritage Auctions for over $1.6 million in 2002."

"In 1997, Cage broke the auction record for Lamborghinis when he placed a bid on a rare Miura SVJ for US$490,000."

"In February 2011, Cage claimed to have created a new method of acting he calls Nouveau Shamanic. He claims to have used the acting style throughout his career and one day plans to write a book about the method."

"Cage has been married three times. His first wife was actress Patricia Arquette (married on April 8, 1995, divorce finalized on May 18, 2001). Cage later married singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley. Cage is an Elvis fan and used the star as the base of his performance in Wild at Heart. Lis and Cage married on August 10, 2002 and filed for divorce on November 25, 2002; their divorce was finalized on May 16, 2004. The divorce proceeding was longer than the marriage.”

“Cage's third and current wife Alice Kim, a former waitress who previously worked at the Los Angeles restaurant Kabuki, met Cage at the Los Angeles-based Korean nightclub, Le Privé. She is the mother of his son, Kal-El (born October 3, 2005), named after Superman's birth name."

"Cage had a Malibu home where he and Kim lived, but sold the property in 2005 for $10 million. In 2004 he bought a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In May 2006, he bought a 40-acre (160,000 m2) island in the Exuma archipelago, some 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Nassau and close to a similar island owned by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw."

"He once owned the medieval castle of Schloss Neidstein in the Oberpfalz region in Germany, which he bought in 2006 and sold in 2009 for $2.5 million."

"In August 2007, Cage purchased a home in Middletown, Rhode Island. The 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2), brick-and-stone country manor occupies 26 acres (110,000 m2), has 12 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms, and ocean views and borders the Norman Bird Sanctuary. The estate is called the "Grey Craig". The sale ranked among the state’s most expensive residential purchases, eclipsed by the 2007 $17.15 million sale of the Miramar mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Also in 2007, the actor purchased Midford Castle in Somerset, England."

"instead of listening to Levin, cross-defendant Cage (Coppola) spent most of his free time shopping for high ticket purchases, and wound up with 15 personal residences", Levin's complaint continued: "Likewise, Levin advised Coppola against buying a Gulfstream jet, against buying and owning a flotilla of yachts, against buying and owning a squadron of Rolls Royces, against buying millions of dollars in jewelry and art."

"Levin says that in 2007 Cage's "shopping spree entailed the purchase of three additional residences at a total cost of more than $33 million; the purchase of 22 automobiles (including 9 Rolls Royces); 12 purchases of expensive jewelry; and 47 purchases of artwork and exotic items."

"One of those exotic items was a dinosaur skull of a Tarbosaurus for which Nicolas Cage paid $276,000 in an auction after winning a bidding contest against Leonardo DiCaprio."

"According to Cage, he owned the "Most Haunted House in America", a home located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana."

"Nicolas Cage remains one of Hollywood's highest paid actors, earning $40 million in 2009 according to Forbes Magazine."

"On April 15, 2011, at 11:30 PM, Cage was arrested in New Orleans in the city's famed French Quarter district for suspicion of domestic abuse battery, disturbing the peace, and public intoxication, after a police officer was flagged down by onlookers after Cage allegedly grabbed his wife's upper arm, while appearing to be under the influence. Cage was held in police custody until $11,000 USD bail was posted by Duane "Dog" Chapman."

I think Cage is one of the best of all time. The Rock, Raising Arizona, Port of Call, Adaptation, Con Air; I mean Face Off, Gone in 60 Seconds. I love them all (save 8mm). Ebert agrees:

"There are often lists of the great living male movie stars: De Niro, Nicholson and Pacino, usually. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there. He's daring and fearless in his choice of roles, and unafraid to crawl out on a limb, saw it off and remain suspended in air. No one else can project inner trembling so effectively.... He always seems so earnest. However improbable his character, he never winks at the audience. He is committed to the character with every atom and plays him as if he were him."

The Adjustment Bureau - KDJ

Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck and now The Adjustment Bureau, are films that I have seen based on Philip K. Dick novels or short stories. In each, the metaphysical world that the characters live in is a sci-fi-ed version of our own. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt rom-com-ed a sci-fi-ed meta-physic in this most recent installment of predestination vs. free will.

The Adjustment Bureau itself is helmed by a boss that we never meet, yet this boss has two soft-spots. Boss and his 'agents' are weaker around water and seemingly confused by chance and love - two themes that play out insofar as they became one thing. It is chance and love that finally free the love birds of the confines of a plan that originally calls for separate existences. The fun is not so much in the head play of free will vs. predestination as it is the consistent escaping Damon and Blunt execute. Lucky for them, they befriend a disenfranchised agent that has become wayward in his matrix enforcement due to lack of vacation time. It his old-timey hat that allows Damon to portal from the 'planned world' to the 'real world' or the experienced world just in time to interrupt Blunt's foreseen mistake.

Damon is Damon in this move so no real surprises. Emily Blunt, however, I thought, was really good. The script doesn't make too much room for Oscar performances but it does require Damon and Blunt to be somewhat believable. After all, a rom-comed sci-fi thriller, is already enough of a play--much more playing and we'd be left with sci-fied Sex and the City, and we wouldn't want that--or would we?

McConaughey: A Life's Work - JAK

2005 was a good year. The ‘stros made it to the world series, France performed the first successful face transplant, and Six Shooter won best live-action short at the Oscars. But what was best about 2005 was that People magazine finally, officially recognized the sexiness of Matthew David McConaughey. Of course People’s decision wasn’t news to those of us who had long before acknowledged his chiseled, heart-breakingly rugged good looks in in A Time to Kill. His portrayal of a lawyer defending an African-American father accused of murder in a racially-charged Mississippi revealed a new hunk of talent on the Hollywood scene. Not since Brando tore his shirt and yelled ‘Stella!’ has an actor so brilliantly coupled rock-hard acting skills with Sexiest-man-alive looks. Following T to K, McConaughey proceeded to hone his sexiness by playing the male lead in Carl Sagan’s Contact. Embodying a physically flawless, sexually promiscuous spiritualist (“a man of the cloth, without the cloth”), McConaughey wooed Jodi Foster and argued the ethics of human/alien contact. He went on to stretch his sexiness to the breaking point with hits such as U-571, Failure to Launch, and Sahara. Though some of his films were hampered by sub-standard dialogue, superficial scripts, and shirts, McConaughey always found a way to make the role his own. Perhaps the Adonis called McConaughey will best be remembered for his role in Dazed and Confused. Playing a character profoundly suited to his time and place, he encapsulated the small-town, post-high school male experience in such lines as “I love them red heads”, “alright, alright, alright” and, of course, “You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.”

McConaughey will next be flexing his acting chops in The Lincoln Lawyer: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/thelincolnlawyer/

No Strings Attached - KDJ

Straight up, Oscar season wore me out. For some reason(s), I put myself through the gauntlet every year just before these glorified theater nerds and liberal english lit majors walk the 1.2 mile red carpet. I make a point to see as many of the nominated films as I can. This year, the last couple weeks leading up to the lackluster-Franco peering off cause he is awesome-awards show, were filled with Biutiful, Blue Valentine, Winter's Bone, I am Love and The Black Swan. In other words, the night before the-Anne Hathaway giving 25 Arsenio Hall like 'woops'-awards show, I needed a breather. I thought about watching The Proposal for a second time. I also thought about Dan in Real Life for a third time. Lucky enough for me, I appreciate Rom-Com's enough to not allow No Strings Attached to deter my unbridled respeckt for Natalie Portman. As a result, I kept my sanity and was reminded that Blue Valentine is as much of a motion picture as No Strings Attached is. Sure, in one nothing works out, eerily mirroring real life for 60% of American couples. While in the other, everything works out just as it did in Clueless, White Christmas, and How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days. The bottom line is, though, after seeing all these phenomenal actors take me to really dark places (Javier, Portman, Lawrence, Swinton etc.), I remembered that it is just as much of an experience to watch the picture book version. Call it a cheap thrill, a solid Rom-Com that is, but don't knock it until you can prove that Jerry McGuire, When Harry Met Sally, and You've Got Mail aren't worth our time. NSA may not join the ranks of said epic-rom-com's, but it just may keep you out of the Indie movie theaters long enough to remember that there is a reason to give Blue Valentine and Biutiful and an Indie movie theater a hard earned chance.

The Oscars

A good article on movies and the Oscars. (Link)

And another. (Link)

The King's Speech - Tim

As a Republican (in the European, not the US-American diction), I have the right to remain skeptic regarding a medium that in any way glorifies a member of a royal, or merely blue-blooded family. My fear that this would happen in the case of The King's Speech was quickly eased when I realised this is not a film about a great man, but about a terrified, insecure, all to human man who happens to become King of one fifth of the world's population. When King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) accuses his brother Albert (Colin Firth) of wanting to replace him, he could not be further from the truth. "Bertie", who has stammered for as long as he can remember, is terrified of speaking in public. If he cannot even suppress his stammering when he is telling his daughters a story, how is he supposed to give a speech in front of thousands. The recent invention of radio even increases that number to millions of listeners worldwide. With the same reluctance with which he became king in the first place, Bertie agrees to a speech therapy with Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) who has the audacity to suggest that for the duration of the therapy, the two men must treat each other as equals.

It is very hard to find flaws in The King's Speech. A historian might find some inaccuracies, but then the film is less about the life of King George VI - though an intriguing story this is. It is about friendship, sibling rivalry and conquering one's fears. It is about being pushed into a role that one never wanted. It is about feelings that transcend social classes. At its heart lie two central performances that are up for Oscars - and have every right to be. Colin Firth manages to harness the viewer's unreserved sympathy - and pity. Even though Geoffrey Rush doesn't have the possibility to individuate as much as Firth, he absolutely convinces us that this is an actual person he's playing: A teacher, a husband, a father. Beware, this is a tearjerker in the fashion of Shawshank Redemption. And like the latter, it shows that friendship can and must prevail even in the most unlikely circumstances.

An Evening at the Nelly - JAK

The Nelly Carmicheal Theatre--as you all already know--began as a high-class bordello in the rough and tumble streets of 1920s Boston. In 1927, the bordello had fallen on hard times, and in a desperate bid to save her establishment, the eponymous proprietor bought a single, silver screen and turned her girls to ticket taking and popcorn peddling. The gamble paid off, and the opening night Valentine’s Day feature of The Dancing Cavalier was the talk of the town.

The present day “Nelly” keeps to the same high-standard set by Madame Carmichael and her girls, with last night’s The Fallen Idol being no exception.

Fallen Idol: (Full disclosure: I slept during the last third of this movie), A must-see movie that sustains edge-of-your-seat suspense up until the last frame. When I awoke to find "THE END" etched into the screen, my friend told me that the scenes leading up to "THE END" had been masterfully done. From what I had seen in the first 2/3rds and from what I know about the film's creators, I have 0 doubt. First of all, this was a screenplay written by the great Graham Greene. Second of all, this was a collaboration with the great director, Carol Reed. The other collaboration between these two was The Third Man: one of the greatest films ever made. So, this story, of a diplomat's son who possibly witnesses a heinous act by his beloved butler, does not disappoint. We see the Butler's story unfold from the child's point of view, and understand his confusion at being thrust into the heart of messy, human relationships and intrigue. Idols may fall through no fault of their own, and an innocence lost can never be reclaimed...I think, from what my roommate told me.

Endless Summer - Rob Culpepper

For some people, myself included, winter is a really nice time of year. Of course, I live in the South (in the US), and the weather is generally mild. Most winters we have a few weeks of sub-freezing temps, and this year's came last week. (We still have snow on the ground in spots that don't get much sun.) So we, for a brief time, hunker down like our countrymen up north, and like those around the world who are snowed in regularly. Having stocked up on bread and milk (mainly because that is traditionally what we stock up on when snow threatens), we brace for a few days inside. That usually means movies for me, and I was feeling warmer weather and sunny days....

Endless Summer is a classic documentary about two surfers who travel around the world chasing the summer. The idea is that if you had enough money you could always surf in warm water under warm skies. The film is shot, edited, and narrated by Bruce Brown who does a really great job telling a story that could otherwise be supremely boring. He's got a sharp wit and really keeps things moving. My favorite part of the film was when, in Ghana, the two surfers teach a tribe of Africans how to surf. Also, the discussion of women's swim wear in Australia. Other spots they visit include South Africa, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Cali. Lots of great surf is covered, and you don't have to know anything about surfing to enjoy the cinematography, the humor, the scenery, the people, and the 1960s. The world was such a different (innocent? undiscovered?) place that the film is just as much of a time capsule as a surf movie. It'll make you want to travel, and definitely see the sea, and maybe try your skill at some waves.

So if you're hunkered down, waiting out the winter, Netflix that shiz. It's on Instant.

Blue Valentine - James King

Not a date movie.

There were few milestones on the road to Dean and Cindy’s breakup, only a long stretch of bumpy road wearing their relationship to broken down. This movie is mercilessly honest (no’you had me at hellos’ or ‘I love you Shopgirls’) ; and to understand the wreck of their relationship, or any relationship for that matter, your only evidence lies in the accumulation of small parts.

Where other movies explain the death of a relationship through the affair or the violent confrontation, Blue Valentine shows it in the countless little arguments, the weary looks, the palpable, unsaid, mutual disappointment. They both had expected so much more. What went wrong? Can they make it alright again?

In answer to these difficult, maybe unanswerable questions, the film exhibits the relationship at face value—the early, good moments inter cut with the later, painful moments, cohering into a whole, walking, talking relationship. But we know, as the characters themselves know, that this thing is doomed. The fact that neither of them can walk away until their relationship is dragged out to the last agonizing detail, is a testament to the thrill and poetry of their initial love.

Juxtaposing those early, beautiful moments (to some NC-17 beautiful) with the later gut-wrenchers creates the sense of watching two sets of Cindy and Deans—same people, at oppositional points in their lives, occupying the same space. Kind of like watching somebody get a root canal and a puppy at the same time.

Gossling in particular is all future and charm and poetic gazes into the New York distance as a young man and all angry and sad and sunken behind dark-tinted glasses as an older, young man. What makes this movie great is that there are shades of dark in the early character (charming aimlessness) and specks of light in the later character (any scene with his daughter).

It makes one wonder, in that climactic gut-wrenchingest of gut-wrenching scenes, whether the best and worst moments of a life don’t linger at the poles but rather circle and commingle, each bearing witness to the other.

Not a date movie. But a great movie, movie.