September Home Video Roundup
Happy Autumn, everyone. On to the new(-ish) videos for last month:
Layer Cake (dir. Matthew Vaughn, wr. J.J. Connolly) - a lot of people were telling me how great this movie was, and how excited they were that Daniel Craig was gonna be the new Bond. I don't quite know what I was expecting from a British gangster/heist movie directed by a co-producer of Guy Ritchie's films, but what I got was...a British gangster/heist movie directed by a co-producer of Guy Ritchie's films. People loved it, I guess. Not my thing, but it may be yours. That's all I'll say about the film. I only really rented it to see what the new Bond may be like, and I have to say it's an interesting prospect, though wholly canceled out by the fact that fucking Haggis is writing it. Oh well, I only watch those movies for the music, anyway.
Mind the Gap (dir. Eric Schaeffer, wr. Eric Schaeffer) - I got this mainly because I knew Jill Sobule was in it, and it's always a hoot to see her in things. I didn't even realize that this was an Eric Schaeffer flick until I started watching it. Schaeffer I think is very underrated and misunderstood as a filmmaker (listen to me talking like an expert here): a lot of his detractors label him either a mysogynist or some immature man-child still wallowing in schoolyard jokes about bodily functions and premature ejaculation. But the thing is, personally, if I must watch a film from one of these Woody-Allenish "vanity" filmmakers (i.e., stories about the filmmakers themselves, starring the filmmakers themselves playing versions of themselves) I'd rather see an honest, warts-and-all portrayal of the filmmaker rather than, say, that thing that Ed Burns does in his movies. I think it speaks to Schaeffer's skills as a filmmaker that he can wite and portray characters who are deeply flawed (if not out-and-out assholes), and still make us care about them, or at the very least make us wonder what happens next (never more so than in the glorious Wirey Spindell) -- all the more so that said asshole is, you know, himself.
In any case, though I've grown weary of these movies about the-loosely-interconnected-lives-of-eight-hundred-people-living-in-such-and-such-city, I still liked this movie, and think it's worth a rental, if only because Jill Sobule is so gosh-darned adorable in it.
My Neighbors the Yamadas (dir. Isao Takahata, wr. Isao Takahata, Hisaiichi Ishii (comic)) - an excellent, new-ish offering from the famous Studio Ghibli. The animation is all digital, however drawn in the style of those old-school watercolory kids' anime shows (like that Chibi show. Remember that Chibi show? Nobody I know knows what this show is really called, we all just refer to it as "that Chibi show". ) Very cute, very funny, and surprisingly poignant comedy about a sort of mediocre, middle-class family and all the everyday things that makes life such a hassle. Also worth noting that he English dub, starring Randy Quaid, Molly Shannon, and Tress MacNeill is also quite good. Definitely worth renting if, like me, you enjoy this sort of thing.
Strings (dir. Anders Rønnow Klarlund, wr. Anders Rønnow Klarlund, Naja Marie Aidt) - I really, really wish I liked this movie more than I did, and am almost ashamed to admit that I did not, since this is, on paper, exactly the sort of film that I love. It is certainly a visual feast, and almost utterly brilliant in concept and execution, but...somewhere around the 2/3 of the way in it just kind of loses a lot of steam. Still very much worth the rental, I think.
Naked Fame (dir. Christopher Long) - The story of Colton Ford, one-time gay porn star, as he attempts to leave the business and start his new career as a pop singer. He (and his partner Blake Harper, who also left the business at the same time and now goes by his real name Glenn) face all manner of problems in this quest in the form of assholish and indifferent music industry execs, horrible bookings (what Ford believes to be a major industry showcase at "Britney Spears' new club" turns out to be basically a lounge act in the foyer of her empty family-restaurant NYLA), and a past life in porn that refuses to let him go.
A little career advice for Ford: if you're a former gay porn star, and want people to forget that you're a former gay porn star, and want to be taken seriously as a legitimate singer, STOP USING YOUR GAY PORN NAME, and STOP SINGING SONGS ABOUT GAY PORN.
So, the viewer is left in quite a dilemna: while Ford and especially the long-suffering Harper come off as pretty likeable guys, it's hard to root for Ford's success when his songs, and his singing, are so unbelievably heinous. What to do? Other than the huge headache caused by this conundrum, Naked Fame is notable mostly for its portrayal of Kyle something-or-other, a former-porn-star-turned-Svengali-business-manager, the kind of self-important prick who has to spell his full name to the operator when he calls 911 to report someone on the sidewalk having a drug-induced seizure.
Layer Cake (dir. Matthew Vaughn, wr. J.J. Connolly) - a lot of people were telling me how great this movie was, and how excited they were that Daniel Craig was gonna be the new Bond. I don't quite know what I was expecting from a British gangster/heist movie directed by a co-producer of Guy Ritchie's films, but what I got was...a British gangster/heist movie directed by a co-producer of Guy Ritchie's films. People loved it, I guess. Not my thing, but it may be yours. That's all I'll say about the film. I only really rented it to see what the new Bond may be like, and I have to say it's an interesting prospect, though wholly canceled out by the fact that fucking Haggis is writing it. Oh well, I only watch those movies for the music, anyway.
Mind the Gap (dir. Eric Schaeffer, wr. Eric Schaeffer) - I got this mainly because I knew Jill Sobule was in it, and it's always a hoot to see her in things. I didn't even realize that this was an Eric Schaeffer flick until I started watching it. Schaeffer I think is very underrated and misunderstood as a filmmaker (listen to me talking like an expert here): a lot of his detractors label him either a mysogynist or some immature man-child still wallowing in schoolyard jokes about bodily functions and premature ejaculation. But the thing is, personally, if I must watch a film from one of these Woody-Allenish "vanity" filmmakers (i.e., stories about the filmmakers themselves, starring the filmmakers themselves playing versions of themselves) I'd rather see an honest, warts-and-all portrayal of the filmmaker rather than, say, that thing that Ed Burns does in his movies. I think it speaks to Schaeffer's skills as a filmmaker that he can wite and portray characters who are deeply flawed (if not out-and-out assholes), and still make us care about them, or at the very least make us wonder what happens next (never more so than in the glorious Wirey Spindell) -- all the more so that said asshole is, you know, himself.In any case, though I've grown weary of these movies about the-loosely-interconnected-lives-of-eight-hundred-people-living-in-such-and-such-city, I still liked this movie, and think it's worth a rental, if only because Jill Sobule is so gosh-darned adorable in it.
My Neighbors the Yamadas (dir. Isao Takahata, wr. Isao Takahata, Hisaiichi Ishii (comic)) - an excellent, new-ish offering from the famous Studio Ghibli. The animation is all digital, however drawn in the style of those old-school watercolory kids' anime shows (like that Chibi show. Remember that Chibi show? Nobody I know knows what this show is really called, we all just refer to it as "that Chibi show". ) Very cute, very funny, and surprisingly poignant comedy about a sort of mediocre, middle-class family and all the everyday things that makes life such a hassle. Also worth noting that he English dub, starring Randy Quaid, Molly Shannon, and Tress MacNeill is also quite good. Definitely worth renting if, like me, you enjoy this sort of thing.
Strings (dir. Anders Rønnow Klarlund, wr. Anders Rønnow Klarlund, Naja Marie Aidt) - I really, really wish I liked this movie more than I did, and am almost ashamed to admit that I did not, since this is, on paper, exactly the sort of film that I love. It is certainly a visual feast, and almost utterly brilliant in concept and execution, but...somewhere around the 2/3 of the way in it just kind of loses a lot of steam. Still very much worth the rental, I think.
Naked Fame (dir. Christopher Long) - The story of Colton Ford, one-time gay porn star, as he attempts to leave the business and start his new career as a pop singer. He (and his partner Blake Harper, who also left the business at the same time and now goes by his real name Glenn) face all manner of problems in this quest in the form of assholish and indifferent music industry execs, horrible bookings (what Ford believes to be a major industry showcase at "Britney Spears' new club" turns out to be basically a lounge act in the foyer of her empty family-restaurant NYLA), and a past life in porn that refuses to let him go.A little career advice for Ford: if you're a former gay porn star, and want people to forget that you're a former gay porn star, and want to be taken seriously as a legitimate singer, STOP USING YOUR GAY PORN NAME, and STOP SINGING SONGS ABOUT GAY PORN.
So, the viewer is left in quite a dilemna: while Ford and especially the long-suffering Harper come off as pretty likeable guys, it's hard to root for Ford's success when his songs, and his singing, are so unbelievably heinous. What to do? Other than the huge headache caused by this conundrum, Naked Fame is notable mostly for its portrayal of Kyle something-or-other, a former-porn-star-turned-Svengali-business-manager, the kind of self-important prick who has to spell his full name to the operator when he calls 911 to report someone on the sidewalk having a drug-induced seizure.
posted by mike. at 11:32 PM
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