Category: Film

Ok, you MUST go and read my long-lost pal John’s review of the Ben and Jen trainwreck Gigli. John also makes some very good fonts that I once used on this site, which was how I first made his acquaintance, oh, about five years ago. His site, now including spiffy blog, joins the sidebar today!

I’d seen What’s Up, Doc? (1972) on “best of” lists for years, but was always a bit afraid I’d be disappointed. This was Peter Bogdanovich’s homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s, and these things can be pretty bad in the wrong hands. But I must admit I laughed quite a lot. Barbra Streisand is not my favourite singer in the world, but she’s actually quite a good comic actress. Ryan O’Neal plays the straight man perfectly. But for me, the highlight was watching the hilarious work of the supporting actors, including Madeline Kahn in her first film role, Austin Pendleton (looking an awful lot like Dave Foley from Kids In The Hall), and especially Kenneth Mars. It was also a treat that the setting was San Francisco, and the requisite car chase scene was riotously staged up and down the hills. To top it off, there’s even a jab at O’Neal’s most well-known role in Love Story (1970). The new DVD release has commentaries from Bogdanovich and Streisand, though I didn’t get a chance to listen to those.

Finally rented this. Not being a fan of the TV show, I’d mostly heard about Jackass from friends at my last job. It’s not really a movie, so it’s hard to judge whether it’s “good” or not. The stunts range from gut-bustingly funny to unwatchable, with the majority somewhere in between. Watching it by myself was obviously not as much fun as it would have been with a whole bunch of frat boys, but I still laughed. Brooke flat-out refused to watch it after the first 5 minutes. I guess this kind of humour is strictly a “guy thing”. Strangely, the only thing I could not watch was the paper cuts stunt.

I can’t really pass judgement on this kind of thing, even though it is dumb. There’s something inside all of us (guys, anyway) that just can’t help laughing at stupidity. And if these guys want to risk their lives, or at least their private parts, they’re welcome to it. I’m sure they made an obscene amount of money from this movie, too. But after watching almost 90 minutes of this stuff, I’d had enough. And for a few of the unfortunates in the movie, I suspect they’ve had enough, too.

It was interesting to note some of the surprising (and not-so-surprising) participants in the movie, like Spike Jonze, Lance Bangs (maker of the “Slow Century” documentary about Pavement and married to Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker), Rip Taylor, Henry Rollins, and Tony Hawk.

Hearts and Minds (1974) is a powerful documentary about American involvement in the Vietnam war. Perhaps the reason it packs such a punch is that it was filmed before the war was actually over, and it argued passionately that America’s involvement was wrong. For that reason, at the time of its release it was quite controversial. Now, almost thirty years later, history has caught up with Peter Davis’ film, and its arguments seem almost self-evident. That is, unless you look at the current American involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Personally, I couldn’t stop thinking about those countries while watching the film. When the interviewer asks a former bomber pilot whether America or Americans have learned anything from their experience in Vietnam, he laments, “I think we’re trying hard not to.” Sadly, I think history has proven him right.

One of the most compelling subjects of the film is Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers to the media in 1971. This document was a report, commissioned by the US Army and classified as top secret, of American decision-making in Vietnam from 1945-1968. Ellsberg was prosecuted for his actions, but the case was dismissed on grounds of government misconduct against him. His recently published memoir Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers looks like a fascinating read.