HOWL -- Premiers November 5th, at Bytowne Cinema

Next Friday is opening night of "HOWL" at BYTOWNE! I'm counting on this film to inspire me, re-invite me into the world that was the Beat Generation, and to re-read all of Ginsberg's work.. I have quite a bit of faith in James Franco to portray him well, after all, he did play James Dean. Not to mention that writers/directors Rob Epstein and Jeff Friedman have lots of experience making documentaries in the past, so I have a feeling this will be mockumentary style with just the right pinch of drama. I'm very very very eager to see, not only the performances, but the way in which the film is written and what it is about Ginsberg that they will focus on. It's no secret that Allen was an oddball...But how much of that will shine through in HOWL?

For showtimes check out http://bytowne.ca/movie-calendar

A man within- coming soon

I am really excited about this film. If you aren't a burroughs fan, become one. If you aren't familiar with burroughs, make it so. If you don't give a shit, learn to give a shit. This man is legendary. This man is everything a writer hopes to be. This man is William S Burroughs.

Let the right one in... Americanized?

Why oh why did they have to remake this film? Two years ago, Swede filmmaker and writer Tomas Alfredson and John Lindqvist made a phenomenal movie by the name Let the Right one in, or "Låt den rätte komma in" in its native tongue. The original is one of my top five favourite films made in the last five years, among the likes of Pan's Labrynth. I suppose it may be the film snob in me who feels such a strong prejudice towards the remake, but I don't think I'll be able to view it without any bias. I just don't see why they had to remake a film relased only two years ago. Is this a question of money or sucess? This happens too frequently... The need to bring something artistic and unique to America. Why not just re-release the originals if they have such an appeal to North Americans? If there's a market for a remake there's a market for the original. However, it's a little tricky to guage if the original would become more sucessful only because there's a remake or vice versa. This seems to be the case for a lot of films. Solaris, for example, became an instant Sci Fi success, compared to Kubricks 2001 Odyssey, only once the petty George Clooney remake sucked balls. Before the retelling, Solaris was mainly popular in Russia and Europe, and among critics.

but why the need to remake something so soon after its original's release? This is a curious thing to research. Which I will probably do, because I'm a nerd.

The American version of Let the Right one in, with the title "Let Me In," has received great reviews. I am just not sure I'm open minded enough to enjoy it without feeling I've committed adultery on its predecessor.

first day on the job, a reflection

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benny and joon

...So I don't have anything to say lately. But fortunately I've watched a lot of great films and my eyes are happy little globes. Tonight, home alone (not the film, quite literally I'm at home alone), I watched Benny and Joon. I'm on a bit of a Johnny Depp binge lately. How have I never seen this before? I've laughed and smiled with my full heart throughout this flick, something I haven't done much of in a while. I don't have anything else to add. My brain is in overdrive from focusing on other things but want everyone I know to see this movie.

Oh yes and...I made out with the great Johnny in a dream once. We're planning a June wedding.

freezeframevolume1

a few of my favourite movie stills from the great directors antonioni and tarkovsky.

red desert. by antonioni



ivan's childhood. by tarkovsky



l'avventura. by antonioni



andrei rublev. by tarkovsky



andrei rublev.

A Creative Spill from Del Toro's Mind: A Review of Pan's Labyrinth

This is a review I wrote for the radio. I once had a radio segment, but those days are long gone.

I want to start off by pointing out that Pan’s Labyrinth is food for both the regular moviegoers and critics. It’s receiving so much praise not by accident, but because it’s genuinely a well-made and entertaining film. The minority of audience members who have disliked it have criticized it for being too much like other fairy tale films. Or Too much like other war films. Vidal has been compared to Goethe from Schindler’s list. Ofelia’s adventure has been accused of being a reconstruction of Sarah’s journey in the famous film, Labyrinth. But these opinions are far and few between. Of course Pan’s Labyrinth is going to assume the shape of a typical war film and a typical fantasy film. But what is atypical about it is its ability to mold the two genres together, and create something unique. If we’re going to criticize Pan’s Labyrinth for plagiarism we might as well call up Jim Henson and Wolfgang Petersen and tell them Guillermo Del Toro stole from their films The Never Ending Story (1984) and Labyrinth (1986) and decided to make a box-office career out of their imagination. I don’t see any resemblance between the creatures of either film and the incredibly inventive creatures of Pan’s. Perhaps some narrative structural elements are common. The adventure, the journey, the ambiguity of reality and fantasy. But in any fairy tale film, these elements will apply. This by no means takes away from the film’s value or quality. So, with this tangent out of the way, I’d like to express why I’ve been so blown away by this film.

As I said, Pan’s Labyrinth is appealing both to the mainstream and the critical audiences. It’s visually stimulating, the sound editing is efficient, the directing is optimal, even the acting is pretty damn good. Gore, and horror are not scarce, but not over done either. The violence is necessary to the plot, and the camera angles work to demonstrate the viciousness of these scenes. But what makes this film so stunning is the story. I’m beyond impressed that Del Toro was capable of creating such an imaginative piece of art. Now, there are many films just as breath taking and powerful. There are many films that speak to their audience loudly and leave them with an emotional response. The story of Pan’s Labyrinth was born in Del Toro’s mind, and his mind alone. Children of Men, is a good example of a film I’ve recently viewed and felt moved, disturbed, enlightened, and the like. The fact that it made me feel so strongly alone makes me appreciate it for what it is, a powerful film. But, it’s a film adapted from a novel. It’s a regurgitation of someone else’s imagination, and re-created appropriately for the screen. I by no means want to diminish Children of Men’s excellence or Alfonso Cuaron’s ability to screen write. It is incredibly difficult to adapt a novel into a screenplay. Not only because you must face the possibility of horrific scrutiny from lovers of the novel, but also it is rather hard to take someone else’s creative expression and stay true to it but also making it your own. But my point is, that Del Toro created an entire universe, which only a fragment of was shown in the film. Ok, so what do I mean by this?

Firstly, for a fantasy world like that in Pan’s Labyrinth to exist, one must develop the details. Since we only see a small portion of this mystical underworld in the film, we don’t really know what the rest of it contains, but it does exist in some form elsewhere…in Del Toro’s mind. Basically, when writing a screenplay as ingenious as Pan’s, if you want to accurately depict a small portion of another universe, or a world unlike the one we see today, then it is imperative to build the foundation. So what I’m saying is, although we only see a small segment of the underworld, Del Toro, at some point, perhaps during brainstorming, perhaps in his mind alone, had to fully create every detail of that universe. Why it is, where it is, how it functions, who lives there, who does what, is it dark? Is it beautiful? How old is this world? All of these things are details that must be acquired in order to express even the tiniest of imagery or portion of that world. If this ‘background’ or ‘foundation’ was not set first, then what we see as an audience member wouldn’t ring true. Wouldn’t make sense. And wouldn’t have the effect it has on us. So, for a screenwriter to imagine this world and make it come to life so beautifully in the language of film, is an astounding display of imagination. A display we don’t see enough of in films today. And for that, I say give the Oscar for best original screenplay to Guillermo Del Toro and his beautiful mind.

On an analytical and deeper level, I’d like to take a minute to explore some allegorical structures found in the film. Interestingly, there is a bridge formed within the film’s narrative between the resistance fighters and the Captain and this bridge is found within Ofelia. While the political spectrum is very black and white, there is a tremendous amount of ambiguity surrounding Ofelia and her journey. Is the underworld real? Is she really a princess? Or is this a part of her mind? We could sit here and debate this for hours and neither of us would come up with any definitive answer with enough evidence because, problematically there’s evidence for both sides. I won’t get into detail as to what this evidence is because I wouldn’t want to spoil anything, but it’s important when seeing this film not to stress too much about whether or not this journey is real. What IS important, however, is the fact that it really is so ambiguous. The structure of the narrative following the resistance fighters and the military is so cut and dry that I’m tempted to say there are archetypes present. Now, I won’t use that word since it has a bit of a negative connotation, but I’ll elaborate on this point. Captain Vidal and his officials are always portrayed as merciless, cold, and evil. While the resistance fighters are innocent victims, good people, and warm hearted Spaniards. There is no ambiguity here. The story developed around these two groups of people is very much a good vs. evil structure. But Ofelia’s story is often in question. Can Ofelia trust Pan? Is she REALLY the princess of the underworld? And even if she is, does this underworld exist only in her mind? However frightening or suspicious her journey seems to be, Ofelia continues to explore and determine her own identity. She does this not by obeying Pan’s every wish, not by obeying her mother or her cruel stepfather the Captain, she does this by her own means. So, having said that, there’s something fairly interesting that most would catch onto and that is, the parallel drawn between Ofelia and the Captain. Vidal is accused of being the type of person who “obeys without question.” Clearly, Vidal being the villain, this is not a desirable trait to possess. In Spain, at the time of 1944, grave repression took place due to Franco’s recent victory. Executions were distributed like candy, and Spain was in a state of fear. Those who “obey without question” were those who obeyed Franco. Those who questioned were killed. A smaller version of this is revealed in Pan’s when the Captain kills two farmers without remorse, kills the doctor, and well, kills anything really. Spain’s repressive state caused darkness among the people everywhere, but nobody who wanted to keep their lives would speak of their fear. The Captain is a man able to obey without question, and in retrospect is of weaker character. A little while after Vidal is accused of being one who obeys without question, Ofelia is told to obey Pan without question. Exactly in those words “obey me without question.” In the end, she disobeys him, but her disobedience allows her to become who she’s meant to be, and on a spiritual level conquer Vidal entirely.

As an aspiring screenwriter, I can’t stress enough how much this masterpiece has spoken to me. Both on the surface and deeper levels of my film viewing experiences. If you can let go, and accept its similarities to other fairy tale films, other war films, and just take it in, you’ll love it. Every genre film will carry common traits, and this one is a fusion of two very different genres yet it blends to make one unique and compelling film.

Pineapple Express: Will it live up to the hype?

Half Baked, Harold and Kumar, Smiley Face. The pothead-adventure-comedy genre is no novelty. From the days of Cheech and Chong to the marijuana savvy characters of How High, smoking the ghanj on film has been a growing choice of subject matter for comedic filmmakers. Pothead-adventure-comedies (or PACs, for simplicity value) can be considered a genre as they have the following traits in common: the main conflict consists of extenuating circumstances that only a pothead could manage to force upon him or herself; the conflict escalates to uncanny occurrences which the protagonists must resolve before the film's end (but don't always succeed in doing so); the protagonists work throughout the duration of the film towards a goal; and finally, lots and lots of Philly blunts, pinners, bong hits, and shotguns are present. Several PACs have been found appealing not only to members of ghanja culture, but some even to the masses. Of the numerous PACs that have been made, none have received as much pre-release praise as Pineapple Express, and it is still over a month away.

Every stoner in Canada has watched the trailer online a dozen times, has seen the Redband rated R version, and played the Pineapple Express game on the website, www.ridetheexpress.com. If this film doesn't live up to its hype, thousands of loyal mary-jane lovers will roam the streets with rage. Ok, they probably won't have any rage at all since they'll be burnt out from the canon they smoked prior to entering the film, but they sure as hell won't be stoked. Remember Wesley Pipes and Billy Bong Thorton? If Pineapple Express carries even a fragment of the stoner-perspective found in Half-Baked, then it will not disappoint. Not to mention the fact that the film stars the new Rat Pack members of comedy, Seth Rogen and James Franco, along with the always hilarious Bill Hader. And remember the abundantly annoying Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, played by Gary Cole? You better believe he's in the film too! Even Danny McBride (Hot Rod, All the Real Girls) has a role!

It is very unlikely that this incredibly talented and comical cast will fail to bring stoners everything they want to see in a PAC: indiotic behaviour, highly unlikely (and hard to believe) action scenes, and of course the green stuff. Get ready to ride the express August 8th, 2008!