The Quick and the Dead Collage: The CK Movie Challenge

A first attempt at using "Paint" to fulfill the task. I'm OK with it.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

For the second time this summer, the focus of a movie is on food and the Chefs that make it so appealing and interesting. Much like the film "Chef", earlier this summer, "The Hundred-Foot Journey focuses on the potential of a chef if only his ambitions can be met halfway. In this case, a family that has taken refuge from violence at home is the source of transition. The limitations imposed on the young cook are sometimes self imposed and sometimes a result of the situation the family finds itself in. There are also multiple romantic stories being told and some cross cultural tension that have to be overcome before the stories can resolve themselves.

Manish Dayal plays Hassan, the second son of an Indian family with a long tradition of cooking. From the time he was a young boy, he learned at his Mother's table the secrets of good food. Everyone knew from an early age that he had a special gift for food. As a young man, he and the rest of his family, including older and younger siblings, are lead by their father to Europe to start a new life and a new restaurant. The young star of the film is required to be confident in some scenes and uncertain in others. The romantic relationship parallels the gastronomical relationship. Marguerite, the sous chef in training who comes to the families rescue when they initially land in the small French town they make their home, becomes a foil for his pursuit of culinary greatness. The best romantic scene in the movie involves Hassan attempting to woo her with his preparation of the five sauces that are the building blocks of French cuisine. As she samples each, the expression on her face and the anticipation in his eyes strongly suggests an exchange of kisses that each leads to a more passionate engagement with the partner. Whenever someone suggests that food and eating is a metaphor for sexual longing in a story, this will be a moment that will pop into my head.

While the young couple are the center of the story, the engine driving this vehicle is Helen Mirren. As Madam Mallory, Mirren begins the relationship looking down her nose at the immigrants and the foods they bring with them. As the owner of a highly rated restaurant merely a hundred feet across the street (hence the title) she is standoffish, antagonistic and outright devious in her quest to bring the "Masion Mumbai" to an end.For a character that has a minimal amount of dialogue in the picture, she has the biggest impact on the story. Mirren can convey so much with her face through an arched eyebrow to a blank stare or pursed lips, she often needs no words.It is her obstinance that must be overcome, well his Father too presents an obstacle. Each of the older characters have reasons for wanting to hold Hassan back at first and ultimately each wants the young prodigy to soar as well. Indian Actor Om Puri has his biggest English language film role in this picture, and it is his success at matching Dame Helen that allows the story to crackle as much as it does.

Nothing is going to happen in the story that you could not predict from seeing the trailer or hearing the set up. This is not a film based on surprise but rather one designed to meet our expectations in the most pleasurable ways possible. Lasse Hallstrom has been a director I've enjoyed since "My Life as a Dog" way back in 1985. I've not seen all of his films but I do admire the ones that I have seen. His light touch with "Chocolat" was just right and the tone and look that he put together for "The Cider House Rules" was one of the few successful adaptions of a John Irving story. This middle brow film is made more effective and more beautiful by the choices he brings to it. Maybe the fantasy of the French countryside is a little extreme but who would not want to fall in love with a beautiful part of the world? People have struggled in movies for years to make computer programming look interesting on screen, but it appears that cooking on screen comes so naturally that it is hard to screw it up. Hallstrom never lingers over the food shots for longer than it takes to tell the story or allow us to imagine what the characters are feeling. The back and forth editing of the food preparation process of the two restaurants does create some nice tension and energy over the issue of food. The actors also do not overdo the confrontation scenes or the romantic moments, they are kept in tasteful check and the audience's understanding of the situation is allowed to fill in the blank spaces.

The vast majority of audiences who see this picture will be like me, they will appreciate food but not to the degree that the characters in this film do. The relationship of taste, smells and tactile experiences will be conveyed but we are all going to need to use our imagination. Food criticism, like literary or film criticism, exists on different levels. Some of us are hackers, like me, who can see excellence but not always write in it's language. Others are experts who not only savior, analyze and enlighten but also raise our expectations. The story might be something even a journeyman can see and explain, but the talent to award a Michelin star for food is well beyond my ability to distinguish, but it is now something I can more clearly understand.

AMC Classic Series: The Big Lebowski

For every "Blood Simple", "Fargo", or "No Country for Old Men" that the Coen Brothers have produced, there is a lighter, funnier or more preposterous film on the other end of the spectrum. While "Fargo" has humor, I think you would be hard pressed to call it a comedy. "The Big Lebowski" does have a kidnapping plot also, but no one would mistake this for a drama. Somewhere between the slightly overlooked release of the film in 1998 and it's 15th anniversary last year it became a cult classic. It is beloved by aficionados of the Coen Brothers and former fans of Cheech and Chong everywhere. The hero is a burnout, lazy, not particularly clear stoner, which makes him perfect for the Gen X audience that was coming of age at the time.   

This is in a close race with "Raising Arizona" and "Burn After Reading" as the most comedic pictures they have made. I personally have laughed at more things in Lebowski, but the laughs have been harder, and more guttural in those other two movies. This does have a significant advantage over the other two if you are going to do a ranking; the two co-stars. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman give epic performances in this film and they will almost certainly remain the iconic images that people will remember of these two stars careers. All you have to do is search Facebook for examples of memes that feature the two of them and your dance card will be full.

This is a shaggy dog story that chases it's tail but never seems to matter what really happens. As is often said of film detective stories and comedies, it is the journey that matters rather than the destination. This journey covers a lot of territory in Southern California without really showing any of the topography. We get a sense of Malibu and Pasadena more from the characters that we meet who inhabit those places than from seeing the view. The mansion of The Big Lebowski reflects what would pass as old money here in So. Cal. and Jackie Trehorn's glass walled mansion looks like the kind of nouveau riche palace that a pornographer like Larry Flynnt would think is classy in the beach community. There are old school bowling alleys and suburban tract houses that serve as centers for the characters to interact in. So unlike other films that feature the Southland, "The Big Lebowski" uses sets and character to parody life in the City of Angels. As the Stanger who narrates the movie puts it, " But I'll tell you what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I'm about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd see in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me." You'll feel that way too, even though the movie is not a travelogue.

Strange characters come out of the woodwork in this movie. Some of those characters never speak, some of them speak in broken English and some of them just have to piss on the carpet. Phillip Seymour Hoffman vamps it up in a role that preceded his stardom but marked a rich period of character work that he did in the late 90s. David Huddleston will now have this as the headline for his obituary instead of "Santa Claus". Julienne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Tara Reid, Ben Gazzara and many others could proudly point to their participation in this movie and be invited to conventions for ever. Finally, the man with the most amazing mustache in Hollywood, Sam Elliot, gets to use his sonorous voice in a whimsical way and ride off into the sunset as a mystery figure who shared this amazing tale.  The work of these character actors and a half dozen others marks one of the richest casts in a modern film that I can think of. All of their collective work would be wasted if we did not get the greatest performance of John Goodman's career and the laconic grace that is Jeff Bridges.

IMDB lists 166 separate quotes from the movie. In a film that is only 117 minutes long, that means the movie had an average of almost 1.5 quotable lines a minute.  From a statistical point of view, if you added in the number of Dudes" and "mans" said in the course of the film and then divided by the total uses of some variation of the "F" word, you will find that there is dialogue poetry as a result. It is one of the joys of movies that music which pre-existed the movie can be re-purposed to fit a story that seems made for that music. This film is an example of that minor miracle as well. My friend Michael has a summer series that he is posting "Purely Because of a Movie" where he spotlights songs on his ipod that are there because of a film he saw. I will be happy to mention a few from this movie that would make my list; Kenny Rogers and the First Edition"Just Dropped In" in the Pop song category, "Requiem in D Minor" by Mozart in the classical category and "Hotel California" by the Gypsy Kings in the selections not in English. There are a dozen other worthy entries as well, but "Tumblin Tumbleweeds" was in my catalog of music long before this film came along. 

So this is a first class comedy, by the remarkable talents of the Coen Brothers, featuring a great cast and two excellent lead performances. There are plenty of music tidbits to keep you intrigued and the movie is almost entirely quotable. Of course as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski would put it...

Get On Up

If you don't hear the music playing in the trailer above and feel obligated to see the movie because your feet are dancing and your bootie is moving, than you should stay away. This movie has a lot of things going for it, and it could be artistically sound on a dozen different levels, but the main reason to want to see it is the sound of Mr. James Brown. If that sound does not reach you, stay home or go see some superhero movie that no one else cares about or sit and watch bad comedians try to act. The rest of us, yeah even the squares who have no rhythm and almost no soul, will be at the theater seeing and mostly listening to this entertaining biopic that gets all the music moments right.

This is a tough review for me to write because I loved the movie, but I'm not sure how good it is. There are bits and pieces of the drama that are told extremely well, there are musical sequences that are recreated flawlessly and there is a central performance that will stun you. All that said, it does have some of the drawbacks that all biopics have. It feels like it is trying to hit all the key moments of the subjects life, and it rarely has time to think about those moments. There are dramatic scenes in the film that show us the problems of our subject but then are ignored for the rest of the story. Side characters can be interesting, but they are not allowed to distract us too long from the star and that means that everything has to be carried bu that central performance.

Chadwick Boseman has the shoulders to carry this story on. Last year in "42", he played Jackie Robinson with dignity and subtlety. There is nothing subtle about Mr. James Brown, and Boseman plays him perfectly. Brown was an opinionated workaholic, a self aggrandizing braggart, and a showman with vision. Boseman gets Brown's mannerisms down exactly, his dance steps and charisma on stage are re-enacted with verve and precision. As the story went on, the more I felt like I was watching James Brown and the less it seemed that an actor was simply channeling him. Those of you who are interested in early Movie Award predictions, can pencil in Chadwick Boseman, as an early contender in the acting categories. The audacity of trying to imitate James Brown is only exceeded by the brilliance of the actor who managed to accomplish it. This performance is not simply costuming and makeup, this is a full bodied physical performance that really should be seen on the big screen to get the best effect.

Most biographical films try to tell their stories in as creative a manner as possible. In "DeLovely" from a few years ago, we are watching the Cole Porter story as told from heaven by the deceased. "Walk the Line" is bookended by a concert appearance at a prison. Most modern films try to avoid the Hollywood approach of the golden age, a straight narrative told chronologically. "Get On Up", is structured as a random series of flashbacks and flash forwards. It helps to freshen the musical highlights and lessen the drudgery of a well worn story path, but it robs the story of much emotional investment. Brown's friend and apparent savior from early prison, is Bobby Byrd, who walks out with the rest of the "Famous Flames" when James Brown is picked out as the star by the music industry, but in a very fast followup is playing the part of his foil on-stage a couple years later. We have no idea how Brown managed to overcome the alienation he created or if Byrd was just so desperate he overlooked the slight. Admittedly there are random insights on why the other characters act as they do and how James Brown interacted with them at those critical times but there are big blank spaces as a result. A similar story is played out with the Mother who abandoned him, denied him and then embraced him only to be rejected by him. After the incident where she shows up backstage at the Apollo, we never hear or see another word about their relationship. The effect is like looking though someone's photo album but leafing through the pages randomly. It may be interesting but it does not create the kind of narrative that most of us would like.

In the end, not much of that mattered to me because I was seeing a fantastic performance while listening to some great music. The incidents are punctuated with humor and drama in plenty of spots, but those never manage to pull us closer to the subject. We have only the vaguest sense of what his family life might have been like, with nine acknowledged children and at least three ex-wives (and maybe more) showing up after his death. He was opinionated and inconsistent on those opinions, we can see that in the film, what we don't always know is what it all meant. His cultural awareness and importance to black pride is shown, but his openness to other musicians and political figures outside of the expected cultural norm is not explored.  The film gives us an incomplete story but it will leave you with a clear understanding of the person that James Brown was. Oh yeah, you will also get the closest thing to a James Brown concert possible this side of old video/film clips from the 60s. That's reason enough to get on up and see this.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Since the teaser trailer above came out, this has been the film I most anticipated this year. Without knowing a single thing about the characters, plot, or Marvel Universe that it is based in, I was sold. The teaser conveys a humorous attitude, outrageous characters and spectacular action on a huge scale. I am pleased to report that it delivers on every aspect of that promise. This was the most completely satisfying experience I've had in a movie this year. Any complaints that I have are minor quibbles about the complexity of the story and motivations of some of the characters but none of that matters because I was smiling throughout the film and enjoying every minute of what I was seeing.

Ronan, a xenophobic Kree, set on perpetuating a genocidal war against Xander, is also a vassal of Thanos who desires the Infinity Stone embedded in the orb that Peter Quill, known to himself as Star Lord, has obtained supposedly for the Ravanger commander Yondu. That sentence contains the essentials for the plot motivations of the antagonists of the story. Does it sound convoluted enough and is it filled with enough Alien names to tickle your tongue and boggle your mind at the same time? We are just getting started. Ronan is assisted by the adopted daughters of Thanos, Gamora and Nebula.Quill is pursued by another of Ronans enforcers, Korath  and two bounty hunters seeking the reward put out by Yondu for Quill betraying him. This all happens in the first thirty minutes of the movie so it can be a little overwhelming. The names keep coming as well, there is the planet of the Xanders, their capital city, and their leader. All of which trip off the tongue with equal ease. For the most part, the heroes names are simpler; Drax, Rocket, Groot, Quill and eventually Gamora also. With all that going on you would think you need a score card to keep track of what is happening. The storytelling however is constructed in a fashion that is far more straightforward than the list of characters. The on screen imagery usually tells us quite obviously who to root for and who to fear. So even though it sounds like a Russian novel with an endless list of exotic names, you will be able to follow most of the plot twists very clearly.

Fortunately for us, the plot is the least important part of the film making. This is a movie about character and the five central heroes are all great characters. Peter Quill (referred to as Jason in the teaser trailer?), is the perfect anti-hero for a story like this. We know enough of his backstory to feel some kinship with him and we can pick out his persona within twenty seconds of encountering the adult version of him that we first meet on the abandoned planet.  Basically Quill/Starlord is a cross between Han Solo and Bugs Bunny. He is a thief, scoundrel and smart ass rolled into one. He also has an inflated opinion of himself that is sometimes matched by his ambitions. Chris Pratt is cast in this role for the voice and attitude he can convey. The writer/director also provides him with small pieces of business that suit the tone of the character and the actors ability. In his first scene, he is dancing to his own soundtrack and disrespects the local wildlife in the most amusing ways possible. The voice is not quite the Milquetoast that Emmet from "The Lego Movie " is,  but he never sounds like a badass even though he fights like one. As the story unfold we will learn a bit more about this Terran that most of the rest of the characters underestimate.

Zoe Saldana is officially the biggest female star in the Science Fiction Universe. I have no idea how she is going to keep up with the demands that will be made on her in the next ten years. She has three "Avatar" sequels to film, another "Star Trek" and now this franchise. The fact that she changes skin color for every one of these roles is a side note but it may also explain one way that she can seem to be so distinct in each movie. As Gamora, the assassin and disloyal adopted daughter of Thanos, she is a lot more physical than in either of the other parts. Her motion capture work in Avatar was amazing in the sense of body language but the fighting and action scenes will not compare to what she is asked to do here.

There are three other characters that make up the Guardian team. Drax is a behemoth bent on killing Ronan and then Thanos for the murder of his family. Dave Bautista is a wrestler turned actor. He has the physical dimensions you want for a powerhouse ally in a galactic prison. There is something very charismatic in the way he carries himself and the smile that he gives up infrequently. As a bad guy in "The Man with the Iron Fists" he was stoic and monosyllabic. He repeats those characteristics in this role but adds a touch of warmth and shows some potential as more than just a comic book big guy. The other two characters are computer generated and despite that, they have some of the most human behavior and emotions in the film. Rocket is a genetically and mechanically altered organism that basically is a talking Raccoon.  He is a sly creature with a sick sense of humor and a clever ability to plan and engineer on the fly. Bradley Cooper helps bring some intensity and humor to the character through his voice. Groot speaks only four different words in the whole movie. His lines consist of the same sentence but it is delivered with enough variation that we can tell there is more meaning there. Vin Diesel does the voice work.

There are a dozen other characters that are distinctive enough that after seeing the film you will remember them, despite the name problems. The story is populated with a variety of interesting alien beings. The broker who is supposed to be in charge of the sale of the orb is a combination of a Star Trek character from "The Search for Spock" and Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter series. Quill's surrogate father, the Ravager Yondu is Michael Rooker, an actor who has always been a welcome presence in films. In the opening segment Greg Henry gives a memorable few moments as Peter's distraught maternal Grandfather. Up and down the line there are performers doing a good job in a film where most of them are acting against green screens and other characters so heavily made up that it looks like Halloween.

The visualization of the technology and ships and worlds that the characters interact in and with is marvelous. No one stops down to do exposition on most of these things, we just see them work. The story moves fast enough that we get as much background as we need but not more than is necessary. The music is fine but what is going to stand out is the song score that is laden with seventies and sixties pop rock. The way the music is integrated into the story is amusing and it creates some heart for the main character. The choices are sometimes whimsical but that whimsy provokes a laugh at just the right time and reminds us of the spirit that the movie is trying to sustain. The world in this universe is another bunch of planets and that may make the mayhem of destruction more tolerable since it is clearly fantasyland we are playing in here.

This is a comic book movie that I had no knowledge of before the film came out. It feels so much more like the fun type of fantasy story told in the Star Wars films than the angst heavy comic stories we have had in the last few years. This feels like a summer movie. It is on a scale as big as "The Avengers" but it does not have all the baggage that each of those characters bring to their collaboration. I know that all of the Marvel Universe is being tied together here and there, but I hope that I will never see Tony Stark and Peter Quill trading barbs with one another. The sensibilities of those franchises is so different that it is a joy to visit a completely unique spot in the comic universe. I look forward to future adventures with the "Guardians of the Galaxy", let's hope that the light tone and ingenious creativity can sustain these stories without having to venture into other territories.

AMC Classic Series: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Watch the trailer please, and then we will come back and discuss the movie briefly...

2:25 later

That looks like it could be a Jerry Bruckheimer produced action film. All that is missing is Keira Knightly and/or Orlando Bloom.

Now that we have that out of the way, I just want to talk about this movie for a short space. I've written on the subject before. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was one of the original films on my project when I started four years ago. If you go back and read that post you will know why.

Today's screening was a version of the film played for the release of the Blu Ray a couple of years ago. The film started with what must have been an extra on the Blu Ray disc, a ten minute review of some deleted animations by Terry Gilliam. It was a little disorienting because it started without any explanation. Fortunately the regular title sequence began after the new stuff and the mayhem continued from there.

If you have not seen "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", your film going experience is incomplete. This movie is the funniest film ever made. Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell something. I chuckled through three minutes of titles that have nothing to do with the story and when the people doing the sacking, got sacked and replaced with a South American crew making the same kind of credit jokes with a different animal, I just about lost it. None of the Pythons had appeared and I was already laughing. That's a good sign.

This is followed immediately by the most stunningly stupid but entertaining as hell visual jokes you will ever see. It all starts with the sound of a horse clopping along through a mist and over a hill. To say more for non-initiates would be a disservice. There follows a strange conversation about the physics of bird flight and a grim image that has another good payoff. Kids, you can always tell when someone is a King, they are not covered in the same stuff as everyone else.

Although there is a plot to the film, it is really just a series of sketches strung together with parts of Arthur lore. Camelot is disposed of with a quick song and dance and the knights proceed to demonstrate their wisdom,bravery and their clear sense of absurdity. This movie is almost forty years old, and if you went to see "Sex Tape", "22Jump Street" or any other so called contemporary comedy this week, you made a mistake. This was six bucks that is worth twice that and will leave you with a good tast in you mouth from the bad taste of British comedians from four decades ago.

Now before you attempt to cross the bridge of death, you must answer for me these questions three:

What is your name? (State your name at this point or be doomed)

What is your Quest? (You Seek Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

What is the Capital of Assyria? ( The most famous capital of Assyria was Nineveh although Assyria had four)

OK, you have your marching orders, go see the movie.

Keith and the Movies: Bloggers Roundtable

Come on by for a spirited discussion of movie decades.