Moovys

Up The Academy

2010-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Robert Downy (1980)

Boy, has it really been since November that I posted anything here? I've just been so busy with school and work that I sometimes didn't have time to watch any movies let alone blog them.

Anywho, I did get to see all 10 Best Picture nominees before Oscar night. I knew that The Hurt Locker would Sweep (yes even beat Avatar) but my personal pick for best picture was the Coen Bros. A Serious Man, the often confusing, very Jewish and darkly hilarious picture that has kept me thinking now months after seeing it.

In late breaking news, my wife let me get a Roku player! Now I'm able to sit in front of my TV and watch streaming movies from my couch. This is a great improvement from illegally downloading the movies, burning them to disc then watching on the DVD player. This way I save time and discs and as an added bonus the film makers get paid!

I've been watching a lot of MST3K on the thing as well as some great forgotten episodes of Amazing Stories. Last night I stumbled upon a movie that I had probably read about in the past but totally forgotten about. This film is call MAD Magazine Presents Up The Academy. This movie is bad, even by my standards. There are some funny gags but mostly they just fall flat. The story is basically a rehashing of Animal House set in a military school.

After the success of Animal House movie studios were looking to put popular humor magazines' names on all sorts of feature film projects. MAD editor in chief Bill Gaines ultimately passed on the original screenplay for this film stating that there were gags that were far too offensive. The script was retooled by some MAD writers and finally a script emerged that both sides agreed upon. However the studio went ahead and made the film from the original script without ever notifying Gaines or anyone else on the MAD staff. The film was ultimately a flop and MAD publicly disowned it and even parodied the film in the pages of its own magazine. When it came time for the film to be sold for home video and broadcast Gaines wanted his magazine's name off of it completely and ended up paying Warner Bros. $30,000 for them to do so. It wasn't until after Gaines's death and WB's eventual purchase of MAD that the original titles and creepy live action Alfred E. Newman were replaced.

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)

2009-11-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Dir. Tomas Alfredson (2008)

The Doom Generation

2009-11-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

Dir. Greg Araki (1995)

Natural Born Killers

2009-11-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Dir. Oliver Stone (1994)

Walt and El Grupo

2009-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dir. Theodore Thomas (2008)

The Last American Virgin

2009-09-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

Dir. Boaz Davidson (1982)

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

2009-09-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Dir. Amy Heckerling (1982)

Risky Business

2009-09-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Dir. Paul Brickman (1983)

The Cheerleaders

2009-08-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Dir. Paul Glickler (1973)

The Bad News Bears

2009-08-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Dir. Michael Ritchie (1976)

Ice Castles

2009-08-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Dir. Donald Wrye (1978)

Inglourious Basterds

2009-08-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Dir. Quentin Tarantino (2009)

Malcolm X

2009-08-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Dir. Spike Lee (1992)

Not Quite Hollywood

2009-08-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Dir. Mark Hartley (2008)

Funny People

2009-08-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

Dir. Judd Apatow (2009)

In The Loop

2009-08-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

Dir. Armando Iannucci (2009)

The Room

2009-07-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Dir. Tommy Wiseau (2003)

Humpday

2009-07-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Dir. Lynn Shelton (2009)

Love & Death

2009-07-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (1975)

Invasion U.S.A.

2009-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dir. Joeseph Zito

Red Dawn

2009-07-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Milius (1984)

War Games

2009-07-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Badham (1983)

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit Shorts

2009-07-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

Dir. Walt Disney (1927-28)

2009-07-11T23:16:00.001-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (1992)

Bullets Over Broadway

2009-07-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (1994)

The Cocoanuts

2009-07-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Dir. Robert Florey & Joseph Santley (1929)

Whatever Works

2009-07-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (2009)

The Great Mouse Detective

2009-07-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

Dir. Ron Clement, Burny Mattinson, David Michener & John Musker (1986)

Small Time Crooks

2009-06-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (2000)

Hollywood Ending

2009-06-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (2002)

Year One

2009-06-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Dir. Harold Ramis (2009)

Jazz

2009-06-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Dir. Ken Burns (2001)

Curse of the Jade Scorpion

2009-06-20T00:07:00.001-07:00

Dir. Woody Allen (2001)

Empire of the Air

2009-06-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Dir. Ken Burns (1991)

Moon

2009-06-19T17:04:00.001-07:00

Dir. Duncan Jones (2009)

Road to Perdition

2009-06-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Dir. Sam Mendes (2002)

The Hangover

2009-06-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Dir. Todd Phillips (2009)

The Girlfriend Experience

2009-06-17T15:16:00.001-07:00

Dir. Steven Soderbergh (2009)

The Brothers Bloom

2009-06-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Dir Rian Johnson (2009)

Picking Up The Pieces

2009-06-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Dir. Alfonso Arau (2000)

Up

2009-06-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Dir. Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (2009)

Scoop

2009-06-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

Dir Woody Allen (2006)

Star Trek

2009-05-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

Dir. J.J. Abrams (2009)

Empire Strikes Back

2009-05-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Dir. Irvin Kershner (1980)

SLC Punk

2009-05-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Dir. James Merendino (1998)

Speed Racer

2009-05-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

Dir. The Wachowski Bros. (2008)

Memento

2009-05-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Dir. Christopher Nolan (2000)

Body Double

2009-05-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Dir. Brian De Palma (1984)

Suburbia

2009-04-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Dir. Penelope Spheeris (1984)

The characters in Suburbia have their moments where they are are likable, mostly when they are busy yukking it up or in the moments where we learn of their lives with families outside of the T.R. house. But at other moments we hate them, begging for change in front of the connivence store or harassing folks at their garage sale. Spheeris in turn creates a group of character that many can identify with. They are real kids who are so bored with their life that they try to live live on the edge just to feel anything.

Just like the kids there are times when you feel bad for the adults. The two men who end up storming the T.R. house and killing the kid have a discussion at the garage sale where they mention being laid off of their jobs. Here we have some people who are also in a bad situation and are doing their best to deal with it. They are having garage sale, it seems, because they know that before too long their saving are going to dwindle and they will be destitute. Before long they may very well be living in the condemned houses near the T.R. house.

The kids never do what is right, usually it is because someone who is actually watching out for their best interest suggest they do something. The cop step-father knows that something bad is going to happen to them and is trying his best to get them out of trouble. He isn't an asshole about it yet the very fact that he is a cop (and black, it seems) prevents him from being heard by the kids.

While there are really no bad guys in the film I know some kids would look to this film as a glorified version of the punk life when actually I feel that it shows the consequences of living a life of no rules. Maybe there is a time to listen to others and stop being so full of themselves.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

2009-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dir. Steven Speilberg (1981)

Foxes

2009-04-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Dir. Adrian Lyne (1980)

While this ends up being a look at suburban upbringing it should be noted that this American film feels incredibly British. We have scenes that are incredibly dry and never a scene of any real excitement. It reminded me a lot of an english film that would come out seven years later called "Wish You Were Here." In that film, which is actually set in England, our star is a motherless girl who is rebelling against nothing in particular. Here we have the same type of situation with all the girls. Each one, it seems, has really nobody to answer to except for themselves. Their parents, when they are present, push their daughters away through abuse or make no effort to actually lead them down any sort of path either right or wrong.

The whole film is wrapped up in a nice package during a scene where the girls are in a family planning class at school. It is there that they are caring for a fake child and are putting no effort into it. They have no idea how to treat a child because their parents did not have any idea. They never got to see them be parents at all who it is no wonder that they can't do something as simple as wash a baby.

The film ends, like many of these movies, with one member of the gang dying which ushers in their adulthood. Their innocence literally dies with that character. We've seen this is most every coming of age picture (I will point out that in Ghost World Enid takes a mysterious bus ride into adulthood) usually because it is such an abrupt way of forcing someone into this world.

With Foxes I would imagine that a film about young people that is so heavy handed didn't go over so well. The film lacks the things that most teens want to see in a teen oriented film. They love interests are barely there, they are not romantic whatsoever, the heavy issue of Madge dating a man much older than her turns out to be her search for a sort of strict father. We see only a little bit of Annie's rebellious life and Deirdre's chasing of boys is so real it feels like we are reading a boring Myspace blog. The film could do well in an English setting but with Americans wanting everything bigger and better and faster and stronger if fizzles.

Annie

Benji

2009-04-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Dir. Joe Camp (1974)

The Pope of Greenwich Village

2009-04-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

Dir. Stuart Rosenberg (1984)

Rocky Balboa

2009-04-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Dir. Sylvester Stallone (2006)

Josie and the Pussycats

2009-04-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

Dir. Harry Elfont & Deborah Kaplan (2001)

Psycho

2009-04-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dir. Gus Van Sant (1998)

Over the Edge

2009-04-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Dir. Jonathan Kaplan (1979)

The film holds a solid 8.0 on the high school fuck-yeahmeter. It's the sort of dream a lot of suburban kids would have, the closing of a school with the parents inside. But switching over to an adult frame of mind I have to look at a few other things, who is really the bad guy here? We have a group of parents are usually honest when they say they only want what is best for their kids. The whole reason they moved out the burbs was to get away from crime and bad schools and raise a good family. It is out here, though, that the kids are only offered one place of escape, the youth recreation center. The center is viewed for what it actually is, a place where kids drink, smoke and fuck when really they are far too young to be doing any of that. The adults are doing their best to curb this because it could actually do harm to the kids. They realize this during the town meeting when they are locked inside the school, it finally occurs to them that the kids are just bored.

Where the film potentially runs into problems is when it is viewed by young people who may just latch onto the scenes of kids behaving badly and not the adult/youth tug of war that is occurring throughout. It is a lot like when I was in high school and SLC Punk came out. All my punk friends loved the movie (so did I) but lamented that Stevo sells out at the end. I agreed with this statement until just a few years ago when I re-watched the film and realized that the movie was about more than just a collection of awesome punk rock stories from the 80's, it comes down to a point where our main character has to make a choice to live his life as a frivolous poser or actually grow up and do something. The remark that his father makes about not selling out but buying in is totally true. In Over the Edge the point is that we are moving further and further out and not allowing our children to be children, not allowing them to explore and learn through experience and that creating a haven of security can be a bad thing.

The Big Lebowski

2009-04-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Dir. Joel Coen (1998)

Lady Terminator

2009-04-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Dir. H. Tjut Djalil (1988)

Escape From New York

2009-04-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Carpenter (1981)

Raw Force

2009-04-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Dir. Edward D. Murphy (1982)

Vigilante

2009-04-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

River's Edge

2009-04-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Dir. Tim Hunter (1986)

Unforgiven

2009-04-14T22:25:00.001-07:00

Dir. Clint Eastwood (1992)

Religulous

2009-04-14T14:06:00.001-07:00

Dir. Larry Charles (2008)

Showgirls

2009-04-13T22:00:00.001-07:00

Dir Paul Verhoven (1995)

The Man

2009-04-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Dir. Joseph Sargent (1972)

Since The Man was written by Rod S. we know that it is going to deal with some heavy social issues. While not a sci-fi film it is definitely speculative fiction which does have a bit of crossover. At the time it seems that the US was quite aware that black men and women were starting to find a place in American society and that eventually there would be a black president. It is interesting how he becomes president, not by being elected but by pure accident. In doing this Rod has forced the American people of his reality to suddenly make it an issue and to take a stance on him. No more is it a “one day there will be a black president” now there is. Those who have been hoping for a black leader are now rushing to him to congratulate but also to ensure that their agendas are seen to. They hope that their plight will trump all other issues being dealt with.

It finally comes down to or new president defennding a black man who has been accused of killing a South African diplomat. The president is lied to by the man and by the end is forced to make a hard choice that could ruin his career. It opens up a lot of questions as to what black man should do when confronted with an issue that could somehow set back his race even when it is the right thing to do. The questions are answered by the end and eventually everyone is happy.

Killer of Sheep

2009-04-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Dir. Charles Burnett (1977)

Killer of sheep almost seems like a timeless walk through the life of post-Viet Nam black America. While we have the idea of a white America who is now living in a world where there is no war to protest we also see the black America whose protest for ongoing civil rights should've never stopped.
Gearing up to the last 20 minutes I don't see much more happening bay way in terms of a conventional narrative. We will see the lives of our characters continue in much the same way as they have for the first hour, simply meandering, finding the path of least resistance until they finally end up at a place where life has dropped them and left them fending for themselves.

While on the surface the film seems plotless, the boys and adults seem to meander from scene to scene with no goal in mind. However as a whole we must look at what themes are presented to us. At the beginning we have a man scolding his son about something he has done to hurt his brother. He tells him that soon he will be a man and that this is no way for a man to behave. At the end we are told that a woman is going to have a baby. So here we have two journies, one into adulthood and one into life itself.
Between this opening and closing we have several scenes of children and adults and their interactions. The children are at play, mostly reckless, taking risks and in at least one instance getting hurt but they always seem to enjoy themselves. We see this mirrored in the adult world as well only here there is no sense of enjoyment at all.
The themes of the sheep comes in over and over representig the meaningless of life. The sheep are born into the world, fed, and raised only to be slaugtered by the very hands that raised them. They are unable to escape their surroundings and their grusome death is inevitable. The same will happen to each of these characters, none of them will go far beyond where they are now. But while the sheep are not bright enough to realize their fate the men and women start to realize their mortality more and more as they get older and older.
It is obvious why the film is overlooked, it is drawn out and slow, the plot is thin, it is shot in black and white at a time and it deals specifically with real black life. Their struggles are appearant but we do not toil on them, they are not in our face. They simply presented to us as is.

They Live

2009-04-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Carpenter (1988)

Lawrence of Arabia

2009-03-28T21:55:00.001-07:00

Dir. David Lean (1962)

I Love You, Man

2009-03-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Hamburg (2009)

The Thing

2009-03-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Dir. John Carpenter

Olympia

2009-03-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dir. Leni Riefenstahl (1938)

Electric Dreams

2009-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dir. Steve Barron (1984)

Real Genius

2009-03-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

Dir. Martha Coolidge (1985)

Midnight Madness

2009-03-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Dir. Michael Nankin David Wechter (1980)

The Apple

2009-03-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

Dir. Menahem Golan (1980)

This film should be a joke and to many I am sure it is. To me it was up until the point when Alphie and Bibi are in Boogalow's office and we are treated to the title song. It then occurred to me that the film is not taking itself as serious as I first thought. While still sloppy it does offer a fairly interesting story and one that translates pretty well for a musical.
Recently Richard Elfman mentioned his secret to producing a memorable musical and that was not necessarily to have good songs but to have memorable songs. He brought up Chicago as an example, while he liked it he said that he didn't leave the theater humming or singing any of the songs. This is where The Apple actually shines, the music is not top notch but it is definitely memorable is some regards. In the two weeks between the time that we started watching the film and when we ended I found myself at home or work humming or singing some of the tracks to myself.
Another interesting point is that the film seems after its time. We are seeing remnants of a disco era played out in the very early 80's. At a point when this genre is dying out here we see a sci-fi musical that predicts that this style off huge arena rock will still be going strong in another 14 years. It should also be noted that the final encounter is with a band of hippies that also seem to be beyond their time. It almost seems as if there is a commentary going on, the idea of a corporate controlled music industry is a dying breed and that eventually music will be rescued by the DIY aesthetic of the hippies.

Watchmen

2009-03-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Dir. Zack Snyder (2009)

Hannah And Her Sisters

2009-03-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

Dir. Woody Allen (1986)

Downloading Nancy

2009-02-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

Dir Johan Renck (2008)

This is seriously one of the greatest films I have seen this year. There is a lot going on with the disconnection between people. Nancy can only communicate to people online, it seems. She cannot communicate with her husband so she finds someone online who can. When she finally meets him in person there is another disconnection and the first thing she asks to do is go to an arcade where she can once again sit in front of a screen.

As the film goes on she starts to fall for Louis more and more which scares her. She has never felt this close to anyone before and when she realizes what is happening she tries to off herself despite the fact that Louis is supposed to do it for her. Here she knows that Louis is falling in love with her and will eventually chicken out (he almost does) so she takes control rather than letting herself feel her own true emotions.

Rufus Sewell should also be mentioned, he has his own sort of disconnection with his drinking of Diet Pepsi and playing video golf. He doesn't say much but he doesn't need to because he doesn't have much to say. In fact we have a whole scene of him babbling about something (we can only assume golf) where we hear nothing from him at all (probably my favorite scene out of the whole movie).

Times Square

2009-02-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

(Original post located elsewhere on blog)
I'm a student of editing so many times I can tell when a movie has been chopped to bit due to nudging of outside forces. I really hate it. I can totally tell that things were taken out and shot behind the barn with this film as there are holes a mile wide all over the film.

The film as a whole deals with a lot of heavy issues and does so fairly well. We have the relationship of the two girls that is played almost perfectly. We have the feeling that their love is the victim of their situation. There is the possibility that Nicky is a lesbian from the start, but even so she does not draw or entice Pam into a relationship. The same situation occurs in Brokeback Mountain where we have the feeling that Jack is and always has been attracted to men (his trip to Mexico tips us off). However Ennis merely in love with the person and makes no distinction between man or woman. Pam is a lot like Ennis in this way and by the end it seems that she lets Nicky go and we are clued in that she may lead a normal life compared to the life she led with Nicky (living in an abandoned building, mugging folks, working at a strip joint.

All That Jazz

2009-02-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

Dir Bob Fosse (1979)

Cruising

2009-02-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

See original post here.

Cruising is a bit of a mess in that it is trying to say a lot of things but never says any of them very well. At one point we have Steve taking on a project where he has no idea what he is getting into and once he becomes involved with the lifestyle starts to question himself. On the other hand we have the story of a killer and what has forced him into this situation. Was it his father or was it the gay lifestyle he was living? Nothing is answered completely and I believe that was the intention of Friedkin. But the film is so ambiguous and given that we have two almost separate storylines makes it hard to judge just what message he is trying to get across. Ultimately when releasing this to an audience at the time (or possibly even now) such ambiguity coupled with the subject matter can lead to many misinterpretations which I think plagued this film.

Morvern Callar

2009-02-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

Dir Lynne Ramsay (2002)

It always disappoints me when I see a heavy film and totally get it but also really dislike it. This happened in Morvern Callar. I understand Morverns assumed liberation after her boyfriend dies only to find herself in yet another trap. I can only assume this will continue in a loop until she eventually does what her boyfriend did and kill herself. Even at the end when she packs up and leaves, she hasn't changed, she just feels like she knows what she wants now. She felt that when she took her trip but found that to be a waste and ended up fucking it up. Now, wherever she goes next she will encounter the same fate. And that is the point, it just so happens that I don't like that point.

Road House

2009-02-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

Dir. Rowdy Herrington (1989)

Road House wins the prize of tough nice guy flicks, a sub genre that I just made up. It is a character we rarely see in films at any time, someone who is not self centered and does the right thing because it is right. More often than not we have situations where someone unwillingly comes into a situation that they must figure a way out of or we get the Stone Cold Steve Austin approach where the bad guy is the good guy and the worse guy is the bad guy.

As an aside I would like to mention Reality Bites. Why the hell was Michael portrayed as the asshole when he was really the most honest character in the whole film? Meanwhile Troy totally gets to bang Lelaina forever and ever and eventually have stuck up kids who end up working at Empire Records.

Unlike Reality Bites Dalton's niceness never changes. We see him get angry but only when confronted with violence. It goes to something he says when he first comes to the Double Deuce, something along the lines of that you are nice until someone starts something. That is exactly what happens. His landlords house is a-sploded, Red's auto parts shop is a-sploded and the car lot is smashed by a monster truck (Bigfoot couldn't appear in the film because it was busy being featured in Police Academy 2). But even then Dalton never loses his cool, if he had he would not have been able to whoop ass at Brad's house.

The film seems to do well, it is one of those films that is recognized when mentioned but rarely ever is recognized as a serious placeholder in the world of cinema. Here we have a film that is made for a certain audience that really appeals to their likes, they like to see a guy kickin' ass, they like a monster truck smashing through a building and so forth. Just because we may not relate to that audience doesn't mean that what they like is necessarily bad, it may just mean that we are ignorant of these things.

The Limey

2009-02-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Dir Steven Soderbergh (1999)

Never Too Young To Die

2009-02-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Dir Gil Beltman (1986)

The Goonies

2009-02-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

Dir Richard Donner (1985)

Adventures In Babysitting

2009-02-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Dir Chris Columbus (1987)

Abel Raises Cain

2009-02-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Dir Jenny Abel (2005)

At Long Last Love

2009-02-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Dir. Peter Bogdanovich (1975)

Raging Bull

2009-02-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

Dir. Martin Scorsese (1980)

Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist

2009-01-31T18:47:00.000-08:00

Dir. Paul Schrader (2005)

Exorcist: The Beginning

2009-01-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

Dir. Renny Harlin (2004)

The Puffy Chair

2009-01-30T21:49:00.001-08:00

Dir. Jay Duplass (2005)

Blow Out

2009-01-30T18:26:00.000-08:00

Dir. Brian De Palma (1981)

It is a bit weird seeing Travolta in such a dramatic and good roll while still early in his career. I know I certainly had the image that Josh Neff described at the end of The Last Days of Disco up until Pulp Fiction came out. Here is the first instance of Travolta re-inventing himself but it seems that audiences weren't ready for him to grow up.

It is always a tough decision to transition into more dramatic roles when you are known as a comedian or teen idol. It didn't work for Bill Murray in Razor's Edge but did for Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights.

Stranger Than Fiction

2009-01-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

Dir. Marc Forster (2006)

Psycho

2009-01-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)

Stardust Memories

2009-01-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

Dir. Woody Allen (1981)

I love that Allen finally takes time to look at the exhausting work that is stardom. Throughout the entire film he is struggling with himself as an artist, has he made the right choices in the films he has made, the women he has been involved with, the people he has stepped on. It's a hard pill to swallow for an artist and even harder for an audience member whose sole job is to watch the film and somehow relate to what is going on on screen. It looks like Allen is finally stepping back and saying "enough about this dismal Godless universe full of pain, let's talk about me."
Allen is the master of the on screen 12-second crush, falling in love with a woman that you may never meet or if you do will never know as well as you know others. In some cases he does get involved, it happened in Manhattan and in Annie Hall. Each relationship had different results. In Stardust he falls in love with a woman who likes him but has no intentions of having any romantic relationship with him.
Ultimately I think the audience needed to be shit upon, at least once. As audience members we tend to feel entitled as far as our expectations go and when an artist goes against what we know and love them for we selfishly attack them for what they did to us. Ironically it seems that Allen's fans do they very things he condemns them for, they come after him viciously for for ruining their perceived notion to the films he should be making.
Ultimately an artist is free to do what he wants with his work and should not have to worry about the opinions of the general public whose job it is to simply consume what is given to them. But on the other hand it is that public that can recognize accomplishment in that artists work, to catch the subtleties that they quietly place in the background, to defend them against an uneducated public. In come cases it can be rewarding to shuck off the dead weight of unapologetic fandom but it could come back to haunt a celebrity once they are dissed on South Park.

Step Brothers

2009-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Dir Adam Mckay (2008)