The year in reviews

Dave Kehr's blog is percolating with some nice end-of-year listage, to take you into 2009. There's the 25 movies selected for the National Film Registry (The Terminator, sure--but Flower Drum Song? Really?) and his own Top 10 (Gran Torino was inevitable from this Eastwood fan, but what happened to Changeling?), followed by his excitable commenters weighing in with their own favorites.

(The Village Voice also has its annual film poll up, and some other listage. But I'm mad at them for dismissing 83-year-old Nat Hentoff, after a half-century of principled journalism and distinguished service. How long will J. Hoberman last at the film desk?)

Me? Usually by this date, I'm making my lists, and checking them twice--but fatherhood took precedence over filmgoing beginning Aug. 25, and I've had to accommodate since then. (Not for nothing is this blog called "Between Productions.") Popdose (judged "one of the few pop-culture sites not populated by jaded jagoffs, and supremely literate to boot") may prevail on me to contribute, but my list would pretty much have to end in late summer. If I see what I feel I need to see on DVD, maybe I'll put up an official one--by summer, when everything has pretty much hit DVD. Do I miss being "the guy who saw everything"? Nah: Movies recur, in one way or another, while the little moments I've witnessed with Larissa come but once a lifetime.

Final RIP 2008

Looking back on 2008, it was the year of obituaries. As I figured, death took no holiday in my absence, claiming four notables more fully memorialized elsewhere, but worthy of mention here: Eartha Kitt (I saw her on Broadway in The Wild Party in 2000), Harold Pinter (all late-in-life sins noted--the bad poetry, the knee-jerk anti-Americanism, the contemptuous Sleuth remake--but largely forgiven, and how fortunate we were to have seen Lindsay Duncan give a master class in Pinter playing in Ashes to Ashes Off Broadway), Ann Savage (so good to see one last time in My Winnipeg, 63 years after she burrowed under Tom Neal's skin in Detour, pictured) and Dale Wasserman--Man of La Mancha and the stage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, yes, but also the co-author of an epic I adore, The Vikings, whose male stars, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, and Ernest Borgnine, are still with us 50 years later. Here's to fruitful longevity in 2009.

Ciao Kim's Video

Today is the final day of rentals at Kim's Video. But fear not: The saga of the store has taken a weird but welcome Italian turn, with its inventory being moved lock, stock, and barrel to a Sicilian town and showcased in an "eternal tribute" of some sort. (Presumably, its adults-only holdings will be screened past bedtime.) Talk about Cinema Paradiso. Only in Salemi, folks, only in Salemi.

Season's greetings

I'm not exactly Robert Capa on the cellphone camera, but it's the thought that counts and Manhattan this time of the year is like armed combat. No one's depressed or recessed here. Here's the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree as I go on a semi-hiatus over the holidays.

Happy frickin' holidays

The Film Society of Lincoln Center throws the tree into the garbage and sets it on fire the day after Christmas with "Classic Scorsese," which is just the fuck what it sounds like. Raging Bull, appropriately, is one of the Boxing Day attractions. So is Taxi Driver. "All the animals come out at Christmas Eve--whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the sled." The seasonal cheer continues on New Year's Day with a salute to that goodtime guy David Fincher, whose Se7en, Zodiac, and Fight Club warm the cockles of everybody's heart. The director is juxtaposing a screening of Se7en with one for Mary Poppins, one of his favorites, making for an eggnog-and-brimstone kind of afternoon for sick twist screwhead cinephiles. "I am Santa's raging bile duct..."

Live Design: Year-end Broadway

Seen and Heard wraps another year with Matthew Risch and Stockard Channing (pictured) in Pal Joey, the Piven-less Speed-the-Plow, and a White Christmas that comes in just under the wire.

Fear factor

A New York Times article on the horripilating past and very near-future of 3D horror movies pays only lip service to the boon of comin'-at-ya chillers from 1982-1983, which began with a revival of 1953's House of Wax and continued with the likes of Parasite, the third Friday the 13th movie, Amityville 3-D, and Jaws 3-D.

The implication is that next month's My Bloody Valentine 3-D, a remake of a 1981 slasher flick that was nothing special in 2D, and whose director has little besides straight-to-video sequels on his resume, will somehow transcend the genre, with 3D that will "enhance the story," blow our minds, etc. But horror has already been taken to the third dimension, twice, with little to show for it except quick-and-dirty profits and heaps of glasses discarded on theater floors. (The article says that there haven't been any 3D horror movies in more than 20 years, ignoring a 2006 Night of the Living Dead, which got a token release, and the Nightmare on Elm Street sequel Freddy's Dead, which closed with a 3D sequence and cleaned up in 1991.) I don't see this new wave as going any farther, or piercing the culture as deeply as "torture porn," unless filmmakers with more on their minds than warmed-over eyestrain throw out a few new ideas.

Speed reading

I missed the mysteriously exited Jeremy Piven in the Broadway revival of Speed-the-Plow. But I did see his terrific understudy, Jordan Lage, an old hand at David Mamet, yesterday, and I would Photoshop his head into the picture if I could. And I did hear co-star Raul Esparza's heartfelt--and pointed--speech following the performance. I don't think it was ungracious at all, as the chatters (as in All That) are saying, and it would seem to quell the ridiculousness about the Entourage star's "mercury poisoning," which I doubt Mamet would have made light of had there been anything to it. (Piven jumped on a plane and got out of town the second he could, atypical behavior for someone at death's door.)

How embarrassing for Piven, scion of an influential theater clan in the Chicago area, to behave so poorly. However, opportunity has surely knocked for Lage, who has made the most of it. I think William H. Macy, who will assume the role of a conscience-wracked Hollywood producer later in the show's run, is kind of old for it, which is not to knock his abilities...but that Esparza and Norbert Leo Butz, actors of similar age and New York theater backgrounds, should be dynamite together when Butz steps in tomorrow.

RIP Robert Mulligan

And so, alas, it continues...Time's Richard Corliss has an affectionate remembrance of the Oscar-nominated director of 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, Hollywood humanism at its best. Reese Witherspoon debuted in his last, good picture, 1991's The Man in the Moon, evidence that his craft hadn't dimmed. Part of New York's live TV scene in the 50s (so few of them are left), Mulligan made a smooth transition to film with the engrossing Jimmy Piersall story Fear Strikes Out (1957), with Anthony Perkins getting a jump on psychosis. Though best noted for his country credits he never left the city far behind: 1960's The Rat Race, with Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds slumming for showbiz work, 1963's Love with the Proper Stranger, with Steve McQueen trying to do the right thing by Natalie Wood as she considers an abortion, the frank teacher saga Up the Down Staircase (1967), and the lusty Bloodbrothers(1978), with Richard Gere in an early part and Marilu Henner as the self-admitted "town pump," all poke at the teeming underbelly of Big Apple life. Sex was also the subject of his other big hit, 1972's Summer of '42, which held up extremely well when I watched it recently.

The more I write, the more I realize that Mulligan was underrated, and perhaps taken for granted. The Nickel Ride (1974) is a compelling late noir. 1968's The Stalking Moon, a reunion with Mockingbird star Gregory Peck, is a tense Western with intimations of horror films. The Other (1972) is a horror film, suffused with the rurality, by turns folksy and menacing, of Mockingbird.

Dave Kehr also revisits Mulligan.

DVD 2008

Two voluminous favorites lists, from DVD Savant and Tim Lucas and Co. at Video WatchBlog. I have some of these on my shelves, and may finally have time to watch them in the new year. But, as DVD Savant notes, the industry is clearly in retreat regarding the older catalog titles I'm more inclined to buy rather than rent, in favor of recycling the usual hits on Blu-Ray. With my Larissa-related expenses rising, I can live with that, though I think the market can't afford to lose too many strong and supportive customers like me with lazy, uninspired offerings in yet another new format I just can't work up that much interest in. This collector's mentality is shifting, and I'm not seeing much out there to keep me opening my wallet. I did spring for The Furies, a Savant fave, and showed it to my most appreciative movie group last week.

On TCM: Disney in the flesh

Everyone loves Disney's animated classics. Its live-action features, starting with 1954's magnificent 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, had their ups and downs, but there's a lot of nostalgia for them, which a new Turner Classic Movies documentary, Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics, milks for all its worth. Angela Lansbury narrates, which gets the cozy vibe going, and check out the guest interviewee list: Kurt Russell, Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, Tommy Kirk, Dick Van Dyke, Glynis Johns, Kim Richards, etc., plus lots of footage of Uncle Walt in (live) action.

The documentary, which premiered last weekend, caps a day of Disney programming tomorrow, as TCM showcases some of the A- (and B-, and C-list) live actioners on Sundays this month. The show ends with 1982's Tron, and pretty much skips over the flailing studio's bid for Star Wars coin with 1979's The Black Hole, which kicks off a day of sci-fi and supernatural-themed outings. Included are the two Witch Mountain pictures (the second had no less than Christopher Lee and Bette Davis as the bad guys), Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Jodie Foster (pictured) and Barbara Harris terrific in Freaky Friday. Foster really was something: From the start you can see the formidable actress she would become, and she harmonizes with David Niven and Helen Hayes in Candleshoe, which is also being broadcast. (1984's Splash, from the Eisner era, got the live-action market back on its feet, as Disney sprouted different branches and moved into PG, PG-13, and R-rated movies, big boxoffice achieved at the price of homogenization.)

It all takes me back to the K-Cinema in Randolph, NJ, which had Disney double features in the mid-70s. 1965's That Darn Cat!!, with Mills and Jones supported by a typically delightful supporting cast including Dorothy Provine, Elsa Lanchester, Roddy McDowall, Neville Brand, William Demarest, Grayson Hall, Frank Gorshin, and the inevitable Richard Deacon, was a favorite. I hate how Disney has looted its heritage by remaking these pictures, with better special effects but duller actors and charmless scripts. (If your kids prefer Robin Williams in Flubber over Fred MacMurray in The Absent-Minded Professor, show them the door.) But nothing lasts forever. The K-Cinema switched from Cat to pussy after the Disney run ended, and became a porn theater.

IFC on the Hudson

Word is that David Hudson, the indefatigable compiler of all things cinephile-related on the web, is departing GreenCine Daily for a new gig at IFC.com. The IFC Daily opens for business on Jan. 1. Meanwhile, Aaron Hillis, formerly of Premiere, takes over Hudson's duties at GreenCine. Both GreenCine and IFC.com are said to be 'branching off in new and exciting directions." Cool, but don't forget the little people who helped you on your rise to the top, ya hear...

Popdose: Spies like us

Espionage is the ticket this week, torn from the headlines (Nothing But the Truth) and from the dossier of Universal Exports (Quantum of Silence, finally). Truth tellers Vera Farmiga and Kate Beckinsale are pictured.

SAG surprises

The increasingly prominent Screen Actors Guild award nominations have been announced, and while there's no Doubt about it, it's not looking good for Kristin Scott Thomas, a presumptive front-runner for Oscar consideration whose excellent performance in I've Loved You So Long was shut out. The blah movie surrounding it was a likely factor. If it's any consolation, come what may Academy Awards time, she's already received three Bob nominations, for that role, her supporting turn in Tell No One, and her Broadway appearance in The Seagull, which ends its run this weekend. Speculation aside,it doesn't get much better than that.

RIP Sam Bottoms

Arbogast on Film offers a fine send-off for the actor, died too young (age 53) from brain tumor complications. His contributions to The Last Picture Show and Apocalypse Now are indelible. "Disneyland, fuck, this is better than Disneyland..."

BAM gets Right

The excellent Let the Right One In begins a six-day run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music tomorrow. If you see just one Swedish vampire movie this year, do the Right thing, before the proposed US remake spoils it.

You won't remember this

As usual, you're unlikely to be singing these in the shower anytime soon as Oscar's Best Song hopefuls are announced. The big-screen High School Musical sequel (pictured, as you might have guessed) has 11 (!) entrants--original, screen-written musicals take note--but thank our lucky stars the Academy is only letting two songs from the same film be eligible anymore, killing off chances for a medley (which, admittedly, could be campy fun). The rest ain't exactly ringing bells: "Another Way to Die" (Quantum of Solace) is like coitus interruptus, "Gran Torino" doesn't recover till Jamie Cullum takes over from Clint Eastwood (but to see Eastwood perform it live!), and who remembers the new Beyonce song amidst all those Cadillac Records covers? Slumdog Millionaire's Bollywood-inflected tunes are favored for the multi-culti hipness factor. However that plays out, I think Beyonce and the Grammys guard (Peter Gabriel for Wall-E, Springsteen for The Wrestler) have more of a shot than the toe-tappers from Pride and Glory and Repo! The Genetic Opera.

NY Public Library: "Yaddo Authors on Film"

Sent to me by the estimable John Calhoun's. If John's involved, quality is assured, and there are some great titles and filmmakers in the mix. Pictured is the opener, Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, from Patricia Highsmith's novel.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS
All programs held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
111 Amsterdam Avenue (between 64th and 65th Streets) • (212) 870-1700
ADMISSION FREE


• On Tuesday afternoons from January 6th through February 10th, the LPA Cinema Series presents "Yaddo Authors on Film," a series of films based on the works of literary alumni of the famed Yaddo artists’ community in upstate New York. This series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Yaddo: Making American Culture, on view through February 15, 2009 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

• On Friday afternoons from January 9th through February 13th, the LPA Cinema Series puts Yaddo Filmmakers in focus. This series presents works by cinematic artists who have completed residencies at Yaddo.

• On Wednesday, February 11th at 6:00 P.M., LPA Cinema Series will present a special screening of The City. This famed 1939 documentary, which boasts an original score by Yaddo alumnus Aaron Copland, will be presented in the South Court Auditorium of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. The screening will be followed by a conversation between music historian Joseph Horowitz and documentary filmmaker/scholar George Stoney.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
Strangers on a Train, b&w, 101 minutes
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1951
Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith
With Farley Granger and Robert Walker

Friday, January 9, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
Operation Filmmaker, color, 95 minutes
Directed by Nina Davenport, 2007

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
The Member of the Wedding, b&w, 91 minutes
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, 1953
Based on the book and play by Carson McCullers
With Julie Harris and Ethel Waters

Friday, January 16, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
Touched, color, 65 minutes
Directed by Lauren Chiten, 2003
The Amateurist, color and b&w, 14 minutes
Directed by Miranda July, 1998
Lady, b&w, 28 minutes
Directed by Ira Sachs, 1993

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
3 by Cheever:
The Sorrows of Gin, color, 60 minutes
Directed by Jack Hofsiss, 1979
With Edward Herrmann and Sigourney Weaver
The Five Forty Eight, color, 60 minutes
Directed by James Ivory, 1979
With Laurence Luckinbill and Mary Beth Hurt
O Youth and Beauty!, color, 60 minutes
Directed by Jeff Bleckner, 1979
With Michael Murphy and Kathryn Walker

Friday, January 23, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
Men of Reenaction, color, 56 minutes
Directed by Jessica Yu, 1995
Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street, color with b&w sequences, 58 minutes
Directed by Leah Mahan & Mark Lipman, 1996

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
Wise Blood, color, 106 minutes
Directed by John Huston, 1980
Based on the novel by Flannery O’Connor
With Brad Dourif and Ned Beatty

Friday, January 30, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
Optic Nerve, color, 16 minutes
Directed by Barbara Hammer, 1985
The Ties That Bind, b&w, 55 minutes
Directed by Su Friedrich, 1984

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
Devil in a Blue Dress, color, 101 minutes
Directed by Carl Franklin, 1995
Based on the book by Walter Mosley
With Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals

Friday, February 6, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
Meet the People, color, 17 minutes
Directed by Shelly Silver, 1986
This Is a History of New York (The Golden Dark Age of Reason), b&w, 23 minutes
Directed by Jem Cohen, 1987
Game, b&w, 40 minutes
Directed by Jon and Abigail Child, 1972

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO AUTHORS ON FILM
Short Cuts, color, 183 minutes
Directed by Robert Altman, 1993
Based on short stories written by Raymond Carver
With Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison

Friday, February 13, 2009
2:30 P.M. YADDO FILMMAKERS
The City, b&w, 43 minutes
Directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke, 1939
Newly recorded soundtrack by Aaron Copland

PROGRAM AT THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES LIBRARY
5TH AVENUE AND 42ND STREET, SOUTH COURT AUDITORIUM, (917) ASK-NYPL

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
6:00 P.M. SPECIAL SCREENING...THE CITY
The City, b&w, 43 minutes
Directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke, 1939
Newly recorded soundtrack by Aaron Copland

Screening will be followed by a conversation between music historian Joseph Horowitz and documentary filmmaker/scholar George Stoney. This program is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Nice Nazis

Hollywood Elsewhere has one of Jeffrey Wells' stream-of-consciousness semi-reviews of Valkyrie up today. While not exactly relevant to the here-and-now (which could be said of most any period piece), it's OK, he writes. To which I responded, "The whole idea of idealistic Nazi/Nazi-affiliated soldiers sticks in the craw. Like these guys, once they had taken down Hitler, would have stopped the war, dismantled the concentration camps, and preached peace and harmony. What was their gameplan?" What indeed? Thugs with ideals are still thugs, period, end of story. Where is the rooting interest in watching "good" Nazis get the upper hand on "bad" ones?

"TCM Remembers"

A lot of my too-many RIP dispatches for the year, in plaintive video form. The song is Joe Henry's "God Only Knows." Alas, there will be more to come, I suspect; there always seem to be notable deaths around Christmastime (which, according to fact or legend or some mixture of both, is when most people who are gravely ill take their leave, as they struggle to hang on for one last holiday season):