"Now I'm Useful": Tokyo! Review

Tokyo! is three short films by three different directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon Ho) doing each of their visions of the city.  While the trailer was wonderful, the movie as a whole is not worth seeing in theaters.  Gondry's "Interior Design" and Bong Joon-Ho's "Shaking Tokyo" are both interesting, look good visually, and are pretty engaging overall, but "Merde" by Leos Carax is the most painful 25 or so minutes I've spent watching a movie since I can't remember when.

"Interior Design" follows a young couple (Akira and Hiroko) trying to find a place to live in Tokyo.  Akira is trying to make it as a film maker and Hiroko does everything she can to support her self-indulgent, typical-film-student boyfriend.  I won't spoil anything plot-wise, but will say that this is the best of the three shorts in Tokyo!.  If you're a Michel Gondry fan (as I am) its worth renting when it comes out.  Its very visually interesting, contains his typical magical realism but has a darker tone, exploring darker themes and only lifted by black humor.  The characters are developed pretty well in a short period of time, and you become especially attached to Hiroko, who is slowly turning into a wooden chair (which is awesome).  Once again, "Interior Design" is the highlight of the whole movie and definitely worth renting so you can skip what I will describe next.

"Merde" is the next short in the movie, and the title (meaning "shit" in French) is perfectly fitting.  I wanted to needle-fuck my eyeballs throughout the entire time this was being screened.  It has the stupidest, most annoying, goblin-hobo-leprechaun creature that lives in the sewer and only comes out to terrorize the streets of Tokyo.  We see in the sewer remnants of Japan's brutal imperialist past ("Heroes of Nanking" is spray-painted on the wall where this creature resides).  Ok, I get it, this is the "shit", the brutal and oppressive events of empire that modern economic power-house nations (like Japan) want to forget about and keep buried in order to project a better image of themselves to the increasingly globalized world.  But you can't always bury that shit, and it may come back to haunt and condemn you.  A potentially very interesting theme that was executed in the worst way possible.  You don't care about anything while watching this, the creature is hard to watch and speaks his own language of ridiculous, horrible noises that punish your ears.  "Merde" ruined the entire experience.

The final short in the film was Bong Joon-Ho's "Shaking Tokyo".  While I did not enjoy it as much as "Interior Design", this was also interesting and done well.  It follows a hikikomori, which is a japanese term for what's basically a modern hermit, a man who hides from the city in his apartment.  Choosing to follow a man like this, and that Japan has a specific term for it, is a statement about the city on its own.  It's also neat visually to see the shots of this man's apartment, fully equipped with obsessive-compulsively organized towers of hundreds of delivered pizza boxes.  There's also a humor and a sweetness to it and an awesome shock at the end of it, that is indeed waking up what Joon-Ho sees as the isolated, repressed, and alienated people of Tokyo.  Watch "Interior Design", skip "Merde, and watch this.  Tokyo! has interesting components, but is not Paris, je t'aime, a movie with the same idea but much better.

I Agree with Peter Travers

Rolling Stone's film critic, Peter Travers' posted a great piece on "Comedy's New Wave" - our currently popular budding comedians that are the cream of the crop and will last.  Here's the link. I definitely agree with his choices and the only thing I would change would be to add others who I think are worthy of this new wave like Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, and Bill Hader who all have proven themselves recently and have very interesting projects coming up.  Either way, Travers assembled and wrote a great list on this recent renaissance of comedy and who its principle players are and why. Check it out.

Watch the Watchmen

This is very late, I know, but I had to write something about the Watchmen.  I saw it 3 weeks ago on opening night and saw it two more times the same weekend (one being in imax).  That should be an indicator of not only how much I enjoyed the film, but how it's something I could not get out of my head and had to watch it multiple times.  It stays very true to the graphic novel and where it strays it delivers.  Most notably is the amazing title sequence, that brilliantly and stylistically throws you into the alternate universe that the Watchmen inhabit in about 2 minutes, perfectly reflected in and enhanced by Bob Dylan's "They Times are Changing".  Also, the ending (which should no longer be a spoiler), works better cinematically than Alan Moore's original.  

The film, like the comic, is enjoyable on many levels.  First, it looks amazing.  From Rorschach's scenes that alternate between a dark noir-ish feel and an even darker horror/slasher type scene to the science fiction world of Dr. Manhattan and the little world he creates on Mars.  The action is brutal and unforgiving and I would also like to point out that Nite Owl II's flying owl-ship "Archie" looked awesome coming to life as well.  While Patrick Wilson and Malin Ackerman give sub-standard performances, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan capture their characters perfectly and give us great performances.  

It also works as a great mystery story, super hero movie, and character study.  Watchmen engagingly explores the effects superheroes would have on the real world and vice versa.  The government might use a god-like freak of science- product of nuclear arms building, to bring Vietnam to brutal end and secure a victory for U.S. imperialism.  They might also keep a highly trained and ruthless operative like the Comedian to further accelerate the Cold War by toppling leftist regimes all over the world.  Hell, the CIA were already training an army of Comedians with the likes of the Contras, Cuban emigres etc.  Also, how would the public react?  Superheroes would displace police and firemen, but would that be for the better? Where's their accountability?  The absurd plan of Ozymandias to blow up 15 million people and scapegoat Dr. Manhattan (or a giant squid) in order to stop the arms race and achieve world peace, was not only a comment on the genre, but reflected the desperation and bleakness of the Reagan/Thatcher era eighties, that Alan Moore was operating in and was captured beautifully by Zack Snyder in this film.  

With the current economic crisis and two seemingly endless unnecessary wars abroad, the audience can definitely relate to that desperation for a solution (hopefully channeling Dr. Manhattan's atomic power to blow up the major cities in the world doesn't cross their minds).  Anyway you look at it, Watchmen is a great movie on many levels, be it visually, plot-wise, its depth or for adjusting an adapting a great work of graphic storytelling to the big screen and capturing it as well as possible.  I  don't know what else to say, stop hating and go see it!

Changing the Focus of this Blog

Not like anyone reads this, but I'm narrowing down the subject matter of what will be written on Kenny Bloggins.  This will now be my responses, thoughts, reviews, analysis, blurbs, anything about movies I'm watching, have watched, or will see.  This is a big umbrella, but that's what I want.  So it may be if I rent a movie, buy a dvd, go to the theater, or post a paper I wrote about a film a while ago - anything is game.  I watched a fair amount this week and will try to post about them soon and get this thing started.  I have also found old papers about movies I liked in classes that should be fun.  If no one reads this, I have the benefit of honing my writing and documenting all this; if anyone does, feel free to respond, recommend, dispute, blow me etc.  So posts about Watchmen, Sunshine Cleaning, Tokyo!, I Love You Man, Ride the High Country, Wild Bunch and maybe a few I've rented soon.  As always, tell your friends!

Stoked!

I'm Addicted to Lists: Best Movies of 2008

This is long overdue, but I have finally made my top movie list of 2008.  In my opinion, 2008 has been the best year in film in my conscious movie-going life.  It gave me my favorite movie of all time and a diverse and large group of great films that are sure to become all-time favorites of mine.  Since this year was so great I could not limit my list to 10, so I’m doing 15.  Ebert and Roeper did more than 10 as well, so suck it – this is elite.  I have a couple disclaimers before I go into this though.  First is that I will not count Che and Gomorrah as having been released this year.  If I could not find them in LA by January that is too obscure to be considered 2008.  These would have surely been on my list but I have to wait to see them now, so they can wait till 2009’s list.  However, there were a few films I missed that are fair game for 2008, most notably Happy Go Lucky and Wend and Lucy, which I’m sure would be contenders if I had seen them but now I must wait until they come out on dvd.  Either way I am happy with my list.  If you disagree post it on my comments and I will argue to the death with you because I am very attached to this list.  Here we go.

 

The Dark Knight:  Words can not describe my love for this movie.  It’s not only my favorite film of the year, but my favorite of all time.  Christopher Nolan said he wanted to do what Empire Strikes Back did for Star Wars and he succeeded.  Heath Ledger’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen in my lifetime and his Joker will go down as one of the great characters on screen.  The rest of the acting is superb – anyone who bitches one more time about Christian Bale’s Batman voice should have their tongues cut off.  His Bruce Wayne and Batman were perfect, and the voice was necessary and intimidating.  Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart made me fans as well.  This is everything and more I could have ever wanted with a Batman film.  Few things have been as consistent in my life as my love for this hero and his story.  Nolan told it brilliantly and beautifully,  making it as much a noir-ish crime film as a comic book (as Batman should be).  I’ve never been in a theater where people cheered after action sequences and special effects.  Finally,  as many people have gone into depth about, it makes you think and is a definite product of the times we are living in.  Whatever, it’s all been said.  Believe the hype. The Dark Knight is amazing.

The Wrestler:  Another amazing flick.  Mickey Rourke is awesome as an aging 80’s star wrestler still going off at Vet Halls and Community centers in wrestling’s senior circuit.  It is one of the best performances of a year filled with bests for other favorite actors.  As dominant a force as Rourke is in this he is complemented with outstanding supporting actors (Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood) and Arronofsky’s directing chops and storytelling ability. Not only a great, classic, American underdog story where I’m not sure I’ve rooted for someone in a film as much as I did for Rourke’s character, Randy “The Ram” Robinson; but also a deep character study of a man dealing with his past demons, his current ones, and the hard reality of a down-and-out veteran wrestler working at a grocery store just to make it.  It’s gritty and real and at points the shots feel as disoriented and beaten-up as Randy must feel after brutally staged performances with much younger foes.  Bruce Springsteen’s title track fits the film/trailer so perfectly as well.  All this and an awesome hair metal soundtrack and funny, blasphemous, commentary about Kurt Cobain. Just go see it.

Milk:  A truly inspiring life and story, captured and told perfectly by Gus Van Sant and the best all-around cast next to the Dark Knight.  Sean Penn is unbelievable as Harvey Milk in this, he lost himself in this role and became it.  James Franco, Emile Hirsch, and Josh Brolin are already favorite actors of mine and they shine as well.  I wish this was released before we voted this year, because  this film is beautifully told, acted and inspiring; its an argument, not only against right-wing bigots but also how to successfully fight them – with a movement.  Milk recognized this in his time and became one of its great speakers, organizers, fighters, leaders, and martyrs.  I believe, as Milk did, in the power of the people to make social change, but after the passage of Prop 8 I wish Milk was still alive.  At least this brilliant film cuts no corners and is unabashedly pro-gay rights, pro-movement politics, anti-right, and progressive.  Not only good enough to change minds, but more importantly, inspiring enough to get people off their asses and into the fight.

Slumdog Millionaire:   How did Danny Boyle get to be so amazing?  I mean this guy gave us Sunshine last year and now this masterpiece.  I went into it expecting great storytelling and insight and commentary into the changing social terrain in India in the last couple decades as it is ever penetrated by global capitalism (and these were delivered brilliantly to be sure), but I did not expect it to look amazing as well.  Beautifully stylistic from the beginning through the end credits.  And this is not to minimize the story and content of the film.  Slumdog brilliantly interweaves portraying the brutal reality of India’s poor with the joy, love, struggle, and triumph of the personal lives of the characters dealing with these realities.   Great directing, great story, great characters, deft criticism and challenges on questions of class (eloquently defending the hustle in such an unequal society with fantastic montages and a perfectly complementing soundtrack), and simple and beautiful, Dickens’ style love story.  This movie is the whole package and will go down as a classic.

Let the Right One In:  I was so glad to be able to see, not just a good, but a great horror film this year.  Let the Right One In is one of the most beautiful, interesting, and frightening takes on the vampire story that I’ve ever seen.  Perfectly set (and made) in Sweden where it’s almost always dark and with plenty of white snow canvasses to be splattered with red blood.  Eli’s Caretaker’s blood-extracting kit is one of the most inventive and coolest things I saw on screen this year.  And to top it all off, a perfectly sweet and violently vengeful ending.  Fuck Twilight, go see this.

Synecdoche, New York:   Charlie Kauffman delivered another genius, mind-bending, ambitious script, but this time he directed it – and did as good a job, if not better, than Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.  A look at life and aging, filled with plenty of weird and paranoid insecurities that we all have.  I’ll probably sound like everyone else, but there’s so much to think about in this movie you can’t see it just once.  I haven’t seen Doubt, but Philip Seymour Hoffman was so amazing in this I don’t know how it could be overlooked.

Pineapple Express:  While already familiar and expecting a lot from Seth Rogen/James Franco/Apatow etc. this was my first introduction to David Gordon Green.  He did not fail to impress and Pineapple Express is probably the coolest, most violent,  and most ambitious (until Funny People) project produced by the Apatow Crew.  I was expecting it to be hilarious, and it was, but I was not expecting the amount of violence, reminding me of duo comedies.  James Franco as Saul has to be one of my all-time favorite characters.   My favorite comedy in a year of great comedies.  This deserves a cult following.

Revolutionary Road:  I was skeptical of this movie at first because looking at the underside of American suburban life is such a boring cliché in film and would seem to be even more petty amidst this recession.  However, I love Leo and Kate Winslett together and I thought the trailer was done well so I saw it.  I was very surprised.  The themes of Revolutionary Road deal more with “Death of a Salesmen” work alienation and the effect of sexism in our relationships.  You wouldn’t know it, but the film becomes a powerful argument for a women’s right to choose.  Leo and Kate do an amazing job of becoming these characters and you become so attached to them that it’s heartbreaking as a member of the audience to witness what becomes of their lives/relationship.  And the crazy guy was brilliant, and unexpected, comic relief.  Definitely one of the best movies of the year.

Wall E:  What can I say that hasn’t been said.  The beginning of the film is almost lyrical with no dialogue.  Basically, robots make me love being human.  Also serves as a great post-apocalyptic/sci-fi film.  Pixar did it again.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army:  Guillermo Del Toro upstages his first Awesome Hellboy movie with The Golden Army.  The directing and special effects create a fantasy meets Universal Monsters type of world, perfect for Hellboy and the BPRD to explore and fight against evil in.  Krauss was super funny and I applaud any superhero/comic-book movie that breaks into a drunken sing-along between love-struck Abe Sapien and Hellboy.  The second best comic book movie in a year that gave us the Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.  Enough said.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall:  Funny and sweet as hell.  Apatow and his crew at their best with Jason Segel’s screenwriting debut.  Add another comedy classic to their ever-growing stack.  Few movies made me feel as good after I saw it as this.

Miracle at St. Anna:  I still stand by this.  It basically got dumped on by most critics and did horribly at the box office, but I thought it was great.  The war scenes were great and it’s an important story that needed to be told and I thought Spike Lee did a great job.   For a full review just go to my October section on this blog and read what I wrote after I saw it. 

Incredible Hulk:  Wholly underrated, and yes, I think it was better than Iron Man.  I loved Iron Man as much as the next guy, but I’m not so sure why it completely overshadowed Incredible Hulk.  Maybe its my fanboyness and attachment to Hulk as a character and its comics (and the great 90’s cartoon), but I really think this was an awesome comic-book movie, worthy of all the praise of Iron Man.  Ed Norton was the perfect Bruce Banner and did such a great acting job.  William Hurt and Tim Roth were spot-on as Thunderbolt Ross and Emil Blonsky.  Liv Tyler was a fantastic Betty and her and Norton’s on-screen chemistry rivals any within the Marvel movie universe.  The film – Leterier’s directing style, the action, and the CG and special effects looked amazing.  I mean, Hulk looked like he was a part of our world.  You could tell everyone involved with this got the Hulk story, characters and universe down perfectly.  Also, great themes that dealt with worker’s alienation and frustration in the Developing world and subversive views of  American militarism.  Plus the final fight scene was as great a comic-book action scene anyone could ask for.  And the Hulk Smash got me so pumped. 

Iron Man:  Don’t let the above blurb fool you, I loved Iron Man.  Robert Downey Jr. was absolutely amazing as Tony Stark and Jon Favreau did such a stand-up job directing this.  Making an Iron Man story as liberal as it could possibly be without being cheesy is quite a feat.  Iron Man looked great and the special effects were awesome. 

Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay:  Hell yes this belongs in a top movies of the year list.  Harold and Kumar are the Cheech and Chong of our generation.  I don’t think I laughed as hard as I did in a movie this year.  Plenty of great honkie-bashing and a great chill session with George W. Bush.  Nothing could be funnier than when we get a look at Roldy in college in 2000.  Count NPH’s cameo as another awesome comeback performances and cameos in a year that saw a lot of those.  Both Harold and Kumar films need to become cult classics.

 

Noteworthy Mentions:  Burn After Reading, W., Zack and Miri Make a Porno, In Bruges, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Indiana Jones 4: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Be Kind Rewind, Tropic Thunder, Valkyrie, Cloverfield, Step Brothers

 

What I’m most looking forward to next year:

Inglorious Basterds

Funny People

Watchmen

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Shutter Island

Public Enemies

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Wolfman

Contributing to the Fight for the Proper Historical Memory of Reconstruction

"Fellow citizens: I am not indifferent to the claims of a generous forgetfulness, but whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery; between those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it." - Frederick Douglass

"We fell under the leadership of those who would compromise with truth in the past in order to make peace in the present and guide policy in the future." - W.E.B. Du Bois

"The traditions of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare upon the brains of the living." - Karl Marx

It may seem odd that I post a paper on Reconstruction but I would beg to differ and argue that the issue is very relevant to American politics today and always has been.   It brings up the role of the federal government, grassroots struggles, civil rights, expanding democracy, the historical significance of Barack Obama's election, and the horrible discussion and attachment in the mainstream media of this "team of rivals" theory of Lincoln's cabinet and advisory staff.  I especially think this is important because of the frighteningly popular grip the "Lost Cause" view of the Civil War (and Reconstruction) has on Americans today.  As Studs Terkel commented about Americans having worse "amnesia" than himself, a 90+ year old man, for not picking Lincoln as our greatest president (and also not having FDR in the top 10) in a recent national survey.  

There are important political implications for this, but to boil it down simply - its the effect of the North's capitulation (due to the rising domination and coopting of the Republican party by purely profit-driven capital interests) to the interests of Southern whites (particular the power of the elites),  films like "the Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind" and the resurgence of the Klan in the 1920's; and the recent wave of reaction ignited by the Nixon presidency and accelerated in the actual reactionary fervor that was the Reagan presidency and the coalition of greedy yuppies, white racist fundamentalists, and military hawks.  Its a view of the civil war that nitpicks at any criticism of the Union (or outright fabricates or exaggerates some) and conveniently ignores any flaws of the confederacy and somehow glosses over slavery.  They say that the Confederates were not fighting for slavery, but for state's rights or that slavery just had nothing to do with the causes of the Civil War.  They exaggerate military heroism and the strategy of generals (Lee, in particular) and ignore the ideology, political, social, and economic consequences of the greatest revolution of the 19th century.  Not to mention, a very conspicuously selective neglect of black military courage and heroism that would fit and exceed even their standards.  

Anyways, one can begin to see the logical applications of this viewpoint on modern-day American political and social issues.  The idea of "state's rights" is constantly invoked, first to protect Jim Crow, and once that was smashed, to effectively try to reverse as much of the gains of the Civil Rights Movement (and consequently, the labor and women's movements).  It celebrates white planters and ignores the valiant and very worthy of myth and praise struggles of slaves in rebellion, free black troops and abolitionist agitators, and great leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  To keep it short - which narrative lays claim to popular historical memory has very important implications for American's consciousness and political policy.  

We must be vigilant about celebrating the truth about the Civil War and Reconstruction.  That the war was about slavery, that struggle from the slaves' themselves constituted the largest slave rebellion in world history and led to the emancipation proclamation and black enlistment.  That a president like Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president in United States history, and was far more revolutionary and radical than any of the founding fathers.  Also, that Lincoln would never had been pushed into doing what he did without the courageous political leadership and agitation of Abolitionist and Radical Republican leaders, foremost among them being Frederick Douglass.  We recognize that poor white southerners who fought for the Confederacy saw no material benefit from slavery, however, fighting for the Confederacy was inescapably a fight led by the slaveholding class to form a slave society that aggressively sought to protect and expand slavery and the racial hierarchy of the old order of the South.  There were poor whites in seceding states who resisted their neighbors and the Confederate government to remain loyal to the Union (i.e. West Virginia) - and those should be the only ones venerated.  As you will read in the paper, Radical Reconstruction must be celebrated as an all-too-brief, revolutionary period in American democracy - with politically and economically mobilized freedpeople at the vanguard.  

It's no coincidence that when civil rights struggles are going on in the south there is a corresponding surge in Confederate symbols and celebration of Rebel Heroes to inspire white reaction and maintain the status quo (or turn the clock backwards).  The Confederate flag is a disgusting symbol of genocide, slavery, and a continued commitment to racism and hatred and firmly belongs in the dustbin of history.  Anyways, hopefully you guys read the paper and it is worthy of your time.  It was my final paper for my Civil War Era class, so I put my best effort into it.  This is the first time I've tried this but there will be more to come. 

Here it is: 40 Acres and A Mule

In Solidarity,

-Steve

P.S.  Everyone should also check out Kyle's paper about the Richmond bread riots of 1863.  Not only are the riots an interesting story of Civil War history that shatter the romantic illusions of the Confederacy and old southern society, but that the politics and ideology of the Confederacy were inherently backwards and that struggle from the inside contributed to its downfall.  Anyways, check it: Bread Riots