Day: September 23, 2014

After praising John Ridley‘s Jimi: All Is By My Side (XLrator Media, 9.26) during the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, it’s gratifying to note that most critics seem to agree. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% so far; the Metacritic score would be nearly as good if it weren’t for The Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth. “Andre Benjamin‘s performance as the late Jimi Hendrix is one of the year’s stand-outs,” I wrote some time ago. “The role is more about layers than revelations. The film doesn’t deliver conventional dramatic moments as much as a low-key immersion into a guy who lived deep within his soul but wildly and exuberantly transformed when he performed. Benjamin (i.e., Andrew 3000) totally captures Hendrix’s manner, vibe, voice…that gentleness, that ambivalent but spiritually directed mood-trip thing.”

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Last night I went to the Grove Apple store and held the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They didn’t seem to weigh enough, and I’m sorry but that disappointed me. My iPhone 5S with the Mophie juice pack weighs a bit more than either phone. If I’m going to spend several hundred bills on a new device I want it to feel dense and solid and substantial. I don’t need it to feel “heavy” exactly but all my life I’ve associated quality-level electronics with a certain gold-bar feeling. The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus almost feel like they’re made of dense balsa wood inside a light plastic case. If I was running Apple I would tell my engineers to add lead to the casing just to give people like me a feeling of heft.

“My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, and then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and magazines, and with the new technology you can watch entire movies accompanied by commentary from the director. You can learn more from John Sturges‘ audio track on the Bad Day at Black Rock laser disc than you can in four years of film school. Film school is a complete con because the information is there if you want it.” — Paul Thomas Anderson, obviously speaking some time during the mid ’90s.

The jacket for Kino’s Run Silent, Run Deep Bluray promises a 1.85:1 aspect ratio — it’s actually 1.66:1. The Juggernaut Bluray jacket says 1.66:1 — it’s actually 1.85:1, which in my book is incorrect. The Elmer Gantry Bluray says 1.66:1 and — surprise! — actually delivers that aspect ratio. Ditto the Short Eyes Bluray — 1.85:1 on the jacket and on the disc itself.

Sure enough, first-rate sound really made a difference when I caught my second viewing of Michael Roskam‘s The Drop. It really does enhance things when you can hear all the dialogue and not just 60% or 70% worth, which is what happened at Toronto’s Princess of Wales theatre. Every scene, every line, every plot point fits right in. It deserves more than to be called “one of those low-key neighborhood personality soup bowls,” which is how I put it earlier. Tom Hardy is truly stellar as Bob Saginowski, the bartender with a lot more constitution and perception than people give him credit for. Maybe The Drop is one of those films you have to see twice to really appreciate or maybe I was too shagged and fagged to appreciate it in Toronto or maybe it was just the sound. I saw it last night at The Grove. There were about 12 people in the theatre. I understand that Monday is always a slow night but still…

The word around the campfire is that the NYFF surprise screening will be Noah Baumbach‘s While We’re Young, which many of us saw and admired in Toronto. But you know what would really be cool? A screening of Baumbach’s other new film, the Greta Gerwig-starrer that has never had a title other than Untitled Public School Project. I don’t know anything but if it turns out to be Young…well, okay. Sloppy seconds after Toronto but a dry, highly engaged New York social comedy. It ends with a scene at Lincoln Center so the math is in its favor.

Here’s the only color photo of John Hurt in his “John” Merrick makeup on the set of David Lynch‘s The Elephant Man. Pic was taken in 1979 by make-up designer Christopher Tucker. The Paramount film (produced by Mel Brooks!) opened in October 1980. Why haven’t I re-watched it since? Because I was hugely irritated by the sadistic carnival worker (Freddy Jones) who treats Merrick like an animal, and to whom Merrick is strangely (i.e., nonsensically) attached. But I loved the widescreen black-and-white photography by Freddie Francis (Room At The Top, The French Lieutenant’s Woman). I’m therefore thinking about purchasing the Bluray.

“At some point you will say to yourself or someone THIS LOOKS AMAZING IN BLACK AND WHITE,” writes Steven Soderbergh. “And it’s because [of] Douglas Slocombe (The Lavender Hill Mob, The Servant) whose stark, high-contrast lighting style was eye-popping regardless of medium.” I’ve only just begun watching it, but any and all Soderbergh fiddle-faddles have my attention from the get-go. I can say for certain that getting rid of John Williams‘ whorey score helps a great deal. Okay, not whorey but rote, defaulty — Williams has been writing the same kind of music for Spielberg for over 35 years — he’s an organ grinder. Here’s an appreciation of the Soderbergh version from Grantland‘s Bryan Curtis. Update: The Vimeo coding won’t allow the film to be viewed here so watch it on Sodey’s site.

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Barf all over this boy’s fantasy. Everything that has become lazy, rancid and poisonous about escapist adventure thrillers, contained in one obviously loathsome throwaway film that is awash in contempt for its audience. Note: The IMDB says The Kingsman will play the Sundance Film Festival on 1.27.15.