Tonight, June 23- Strange Boys @ The Church
and
Bass Drum of Death and Kal Marks @ Great Scott
Category Archives: Films
High School Record Trailer
This is the trailer for the underground film High School Record (2005) which featured honorary KLYAMer Dean Allen Spunt of No Age. I’ve been meaning to see this for years, does anyone know where I can find it? Based on this trailer it looks pretty sweet.
Mini Classic Film Reviews: True Romance…
Full Title: True Romance
Director: Tony Scott
Year: 1993
Comments: First up is Tony Scott’s classic True Romance. TR is a film geek’s film. And whadya know, the geekiest film geek wrote the screenplay: none other than Quentin Tarantino! This is one of Tarantino’s earliest screenplays and one of his finest. His didja get it? nerdy comic book, obscure Kung- Fu flick references are splattered all over this drug/crime thriller. In brief, the story concerns a quirky, young couple- an ex call girl, Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and a comic book store owner, Clarence (Christian Slater) in a fast paced race to sell a shit ton of uncut cocaine following the murder of bama’s psychotic, off kilter, wigga gangsta (Gary Oldman), the rightful owner of the blow. Now, his men are after the dynamic duo and hellbent on reclaiming their narcotics. I’m not going to lie this movie isn’t flawless and often I wonder what would a Taratino directed version be like. For sure, Scott’s direction is vastly different from anything we’ve seen from Quentin and this definitely makes TR appear to be more like your average action flick… but it’s not. Not at all. It’s not the strongest crime film, but it is a fun ride with elements of comedy, drama, and even “CSI” esque televison. I don’t know if that’s just me, but I get those vibes, I often feel like I’m watching a high quality television program. Certainly, the star here is the screenplay, from the first few moments anyone even slightly familar with Tarantino’s style can identify that these are his menacing words. Though let’s not forget the many sound performances here; there is an all star cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, Samuel L. Jackson in a hilarious cameo, Chris Penn, Bronson Pinchot, and Brad Pitt as a pleasant stoner almost of the Hurricanes of Love variety my heavenly brothers. And yes the action is exquisite, very fun, very badass, I think most action fans will dig it and will be able to easily digest thee other more intelligent matter floating in between all the blood and bullets. Don’t worry fuckheads, this is pure high quality action, not too much to think about, but not D U M B dumb either. By the way, the exchange between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper (link below) is one of my all time favorite pieces of dialogue and appears to be quite popular amongst cult film fanatics. That’s one thing I will say about this movie that stands out, the individual scenes. Several of the scenes themselves I enjoy more than the whole feature. Don’t get me wrong it is a very good film and there’s a feeling completion when the credits roll, but overall I’d say I prefer some of the scenes as opposed to the whole cinematic experience. To wrap things up I hope people really do check out this cult classic because it seems like no one has seen it and that’s a damn shame!
Grade: 8/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqccyUpnZwA
Full Title: Blue Velvet
Director: David Lynch
Year: 1986
Comments: Ahh another Dennis Hopper film. Dennis Hopper don’t let him mark ya, it’s so much darker don’t let him touch ya. Don’t fill a KLYAMer up with dread. Okay, if you don’t know the song “Spidey’s Curse” by the Black Lips then you must be saying WTF?! to yourself, and more imporantly you are a fool! You deserve the ambiguity. But, enough of that for now. Let’s talk about David Lynch’s masterpiece. For twenty-five years now people have dissected the shit out of this picture and with great reason. Lynch sets you up with the wonderful, colorful, suburban, American Dream in the form of the town Lumberton, only to rip the heart out of that idyllic image and flush it down the toilet. Lynch offers us a view of a world most of us have never been close to and pray that stays the same. We see that beneath the pleaseant, peaceful town of Luberton lies a seedy world of gangs, hardcore drugs, and rape. Enter the movie’s villian and one of my favorite characters in all of film, the nitrous inhalin madman, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). Lynch mixes campy comedy with extremely distubring imagery of the gothic tradition and the result is one of the 80s’ greatest films.
Grade: 9/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSoWg3nBeU– Roy Orbison- “In Dreams” scene
E-I-E-I-OMG, California, this is your Governor, excuse me, Governator.
Full Title: Kindergarten Cop
Director: Ivan Reitman
Year: 1990
Comments: Okay, this is clearly not a good movie in the traditional sense, but I loved it as a kid and I still enjoy watching it now. I think it is silly to slap a grade on this kind of movie, but I have to say for what it is worth the story is decent and it mixes the action, comedy, (cop)drama, and kids/family entertainment genres fairly well.
Grade: N/A
And check out this video!
Quote of the Day: Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper)
Ben: To your health.
Frank Booth: Ah, shit, let’s drink to something else. Let’s drink to fucking. Yeah, say, “Here’s to your fuck, Frank.”
Ben: If you like, Frank. Here’s to your fuck.
From David Lynch’s 1986 cult classic Blue Velvet, of which a mini classic film review will be up accompanied by two other recently (though not firstly) viewed flicks.
Classic Film Review: Away We Go
Full Title: Away We Go
Director: Sam Mendes
Year: 2009
Comments: Sam Mendes blew my mind before with the 90s classic American Beauty and though this film does not live up to that fine piece of cinema, it is without a doubt a smart film worthy of praise. Away We Go centers around two thirty-somethings about to bring a baby into the world, uncertain of where they should raise their newborn; the couple spends the rest of the film scouting for new locations for their future family life. On the way, they encounter various, amusing, often bizarre characters that either promote or deter their search, usually the latter. This most definitley keeps the film interesting and entertaining, it is always moving forwards and doesn’t linger on irrelevent details like most movies do. At the same time, despite the sharp writing and direction of AWG, I can’t say I love this film and I have to admit, I find nothng about this moive particularly memorable. In terms of quality, it is without a doubt above average, bettet than most hip, “indie” flicks, the acting, the screenplay, plot, etc. is decent. But, for me there really isn’t much to make this feature stand out from the next “big thing.” I feel like this movie tries to be both Garden State and Juno, but lacks the sentiment and the joy of both, respectively. All in all, a good film, but not in the league of the best of the “indie” films of the Double Ohhs.
Grade: 7/10
Kevin Smith- Red State Trailer
I’m a little behind on this, but damn this looks like a whole new path for Kevin Smith; I’ll have to check it out.
Sidney Lumet Dies at 86
http://galvestondailynews.com/ap/b3af1f/
Sadly, Sidney Lumet, one of the finest directors passed away today. Lumet directed many great films, with 12 Angry Men, being my favorite; the film demonstrated how you could produce a lot with just a little, a trait we greatly value here at KLYAM.
RIP brother.
Classic Film Review: Faat Kiné
Full Title: Faat Kiné
Director: Ousmane Sembène
Year: 2000
Comments: Faat Kiné is a Senegalese woman, who runs a successful gas station- a rare feat in the male dominated, oppressive world of Senegal. Kiné’s character is seen as a heroine in her community, having suffered and struggled most of her life to give her kids (whom she had out of wedlock) the education and privileged life she never had. One of the film’s main themes is the repudiation of the old generation. The movie makes itself clear that the former traditions of Senegal are slowly dissipating. As a whole, I thought this message was communicated well and I would say for a movie, this is informative in terms of learning about Senegalese culture. With that being said, it was overall pretty average and did not floor me in any way. There is enough to be appreciated, but not enough for it to stand out as anything of significance. Some parts were mildly amusing, some things were shocking, but the running time without a doubt could have been trimmed, much like most American films. If you read this site’s film reviews, you know we don’t really cover too much foreign material (for no particular reason other than not coming across them and/or not making any effort to come across them either), but I don’t feel like my lack of enthusiasm for this feature has anything to do with a language/culture barrier; I treated this review like any other one. All in all, I would only recommend this to someone that wants to learn about Senegal (and/or how it has changed in somewhat recent years) via entertainment.
Grade: 4/10
Quote of the Day
” A kid who tells on another kid is a dead kid”- Over the Edge (1979)
Word…
And the Oscar Goes to…
Trent Reznor (above) and Atticus Ross won Best Original Score for The Social Network (2010)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Best Achievement in Directing:
Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Christian Bale for The Fighter
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published:
Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen:
David Seidler for The King’s Speech
The rest can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/
This year turned out to be pretty much what I expected, no real surprises. I’m glad The Social Network, Toy Story 3, and Christian Bale’s performance in The Fighter got the credit they deserved. I really didn’t see too many films this year, but specifically I saw eye to eye with the acamedy for those three films and their respective awards.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 