Wisdom of the Sages Reviews
2012 Best of Stuff Lists
Well here we are with yet another year
come and gone. It seemed that 2012 went by a lot faster. Maybe because we had
so much to do. As we wind down the year I decided to once again put up what I
though were the best of things for this past year.
Every year I put pressure on myself to do
this because I operate a couple of blogs that no one really reads. I am very
aware that no one cares about my opinion of things either, or we would be
discussing such things. But yell out a political claim or use the dead to back
my opinions and boy-howdy there’s a shoutin’ match. Oh well. Besides it is
always fun to look back and as Joel Hodgeson says about looking back at the
past “You always know what you’re going to say.”
Let’s begin this shall we?
TOP MUSIC BUYS of 2012
Again, as in previous years I have not
bought a lot of music lately. I listen to music mostly through YouTube videos
these days as CD, albums or other music media forms are becoming obsolete and
radio stations are becoming virtually undistinguishable and obsolete as well. So,
I just stick to the groups and singers that I have listened to for years. I
don’t even know who the latest “big thing” is in music anymore.
This list is short and limited to what I
purchased rather than the new things I thought were cool. Because all of it
isn’t. Cool, I mean. Or New, either, come to think of it. Here we go:
Danielle Ate the Sandwich –
Like A King (compact disc purchase)
Self-produced, singer/songwriter Danielle
Anderson’s fourth effort sprang from a public Kickstarter campaign. While not
her strongest effort, it does boast some strong songs. Initially, it suffers
from a lot of the same things artists of this genre do: the fans.
It begins with a Squirrel Nut-Hipster BS
riffed ditty called “Faith in a Man” with a stand-up bass, and a scratchy
violin backing her ukulele. When I first heard this, she played it solo at a
live performance and the intimacy lent strength to the lyrics and the tempo
seemed to give added weight to the song overall but this is clearly the song
they spent the most money on. Overly produced, now it comes off as a gimmick
song. Seeing the music video as well, made me realize how much fan service is
being paid to thank the Kickstarter backing.
The strongest songs of Danielle Ate the Sandwich seem to be the
ones where she steps outside her comfort zone of uke-strumming and quirky
lyrics. As such, “Indiana” is a great song. The riff alone added to the melancholy
of her singing, which gives it the feel of a road song. I played this as I
drove back and forth to my job in Wisconsin. “Evolution” another song I first
heard live captures the irony of tone and lyric in tandem of one another. She
tackles human equity and measures it against the evolution of mankind, not as a
species but in ideology, and ties it together with her sweet-sugar-rush twang.
(She should record a live album. Seriously.) “Like a King” is a sweet number
about the mis-satisfaction of materialism.
Her strongest song, certainly on this
album but also her oeuvre is “The Have-Nots” as gentle at the beginning ode to
questioning religion then builds to an epic chant of trying to find faith as an
individual in the world. Quite possibly one of my favorite songs overall.
The rest of the album, unfortunately,
sounds overly familiar to her earliest works that I cannot discern them one
from the other now as I write this. A strumming line, a gimmicky opening lyric
and refrain about something longed for. They sound like steps backwards. But in
the spots where she does shine, like “Indiana”, like “Evolution”, like, uh,
“Like a King” and especially, “The Have-Nots”, she shines very bright and her
potential is vocal, in bloom and infectious. You want her to succeed based on
these songs.
Danielle
Ate the Sandwich sits at
a precipice of artistry that can find her churning out same-sounding
fan-service or she can take wing, push the boundaries, of not only her song writing
but of her best instrument – her voice.
It is a hitherto unforeseen precipice for
all independent artists, from singer-song writers like Danielle to Hip Hop
rappers. They reach a point that they mistake creativity by output and begin
churning out same-sounding works like it is a factory job rather than
expression of art. Then they wonder why their singles don’t sell. (Because it
sounds the same as the last song.) Still, I think she can take wing and build
something stronger than ever. We fans simply have to NOT drag her down. Or
maybe I’m thinking too much about it.
Sammy Llanas – “It Don’t
Bother Me” (digital download single)
This song comes from his solo effort with
his band Absinthe. It has been out for a while but I only recently bought the
single this year having run across it on YouTube after attending a concert of
his at a local neighborhood arts festival. Now, the demise of the BoDeans is a
sad and multi-voiced story and fans have lined up on either side with Kurt or
Sammy, both stating that the other side is to blame and others saying that they
don’t care as long as the music continues. For me, the BoDeans are done. Gone.
Kaput. Forever. The BoDeans were Kurt AND Sammy, always have been.
But hearing Sammy that night attack old
songs and new with a gusto that I thought gone after the break-up. He rocked
and rolled and restored my faith in him as a solo artist because he did not
cling to the legacy of the BoDean to try it as a solo artist. Sure, he sang the
songs he wrote with the band but he laid out new ones as well. It was a
masterful performance in a tiny venue. Kurt still has the BoDeans name to draw
the bigger crowds. Sammy had no such crutch to lean on and yet he did not need
one. I planted my flag firmly in Camp Llanas that night. Not to say I am
against Kurt and the New BoDeans. I haven’t heard the entire story. But like
most people, actually ALL people, I just listen more to things that prop up my
own side and opinions. To me anyway, Sammy’s voice lent a heart and soul to the
work of the BoDeans.
This particular sing struck me with its
nonchalance about the world crumbling around a personal life and still moving
on. It struck me as a personal ballad for both Sammy and myself and that
connection is something that few artists try for any more. A truly great tune.
Tamera Podemski – “So Damn
Beautiful” (digital download single)
Podemski as a singer is how I first
encountered her. Her producers sent the film festival a copy of the music video
for her song “Meegwitch”. Then, later, I noticed her in Sterlin Harjo’s “Four
Sheets to the Wind” and in that she was at the same time both tough and vulnerable
and pretty damn sexy. (Why aren’t Indian women allowed to be sexy when there
are soooo many sexy Indian women?) I have a crush on Tamera Podemski.
Her song “So Damn Beautiful” is a lustful
and strong piece about longing and wanting what you cannot have. It is sexy and
torrid and it carries a damn fine vocal showcase and turn-of-phrase by
Podemski. This song got me through some rough times a few years back and only
now did I think of purchasing it via online. I highly recommend this song
because it is so out of line with
what is out there by Native artists. Every one else is flutes and colonization.
This is about wanting and lusting. Which makes it a refreshing change of pace
for “Native Music”….
So, that’s it for music. Shall we move on
to the printed page? This year, Nooks were introduced to the family via
Bonnie’s new job. I care nothing for e-readers and still love to hold a
paperbound book when I read. It seems to be a generational thing. I am not
above being hypocritical and working on my own publishing for e-readers. As
always, it is not about what came out this year but what I bought or received:
Top Books of 2012
A
Song of Fire and Ice: Book Two – A Clash of Kings,
George RR Martin – I got
this for Christmas and I have yet to read it. That Bonnie and Char were excited
for me to have it makes it special. Since the first book is turning out great,
I am looking forward to this one.
The
Dark Knight Rises: Novelization, Greg Cox – I bought this used and reading it
continuously in the waiting period after the movie left the theater and was
released on DVD. I must have read it three times. It is a quick read. It fills
in the gaps of the film and helped with the Dark Knight withdrawals. It is a
fun little book, which reveals a quasi-outcome for The Joker character not in
the film. I would not recommend it because the entire planet hated The Dark Knight Rises.
Robopocalypse,
Daniel H. Wilson – This
book is quite a treat. Written by Cherokee author Danial Wilson, this was the
first major book I read this past year that I put down “Three Kingdoms” for. It
is about the aftermath of a robot uprising told in multiple stories, sort of
like Max Brook’s “World War Z” but more immediate to the events and not a
long-after recollection. Steven Spielberg is producing and directing a movie
based on this for release in 2014. Overall, a fun and scary read that does not
over laden the reader with Author-is-Smart jargon. I recommend this heartily
even for younger readers as it will ignite their imaginations in a world that is
now and is possible and the idea that there are sometimes frightening
consequences to humanity’s actions.
This
was the last book I put up for reading in the Summer Youth Reading Program with
Title VII as I left and though I heard some tough things about it from the moms
but what was more important to me was hearing was that the students loved it.
It was recently the subject of a high school ban in some state. I forget.
Strangely enough, there is no sex, swearing or controversial subjects in the
story. There is violence, but then again, it was about a war. Maybe they
thought Native authors should stick to stories about themselves, the rez or the
past…. Which is another reason I love this book, because it is NOT about these
things.
SPOILERS: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book One – A Game of
Thrones, George RR Martin
– I am so enamored of this book. I was told that it was better than the TV
series and boy, where they right to tell me that. It gets the reader into the
headspace of the characters. I am starting to find myself a bit disappointed in
the HBO series now because so many small character moments are lost in the
show. Two of my favorite lost moments:
1)
When the Bastard Jon Snow first meets Tyrion Lannister known as The Imp, they
have their exchange as they do in the show, but lost is the seed of respect
that is planted in Snow for Tyrion. “To
their fathers, all dwarves are bastards.” And as Tyrion returns to the
Stark feast through a doorway hazy with cooking smoke, “When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow across
the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood as tall as a king.”
Cool. And:
2)
The phrase Winter is Coming is
overplayed in the promotion of the series. So much so that every series based
on history or ancient times have began paraphrasing that motto. In the book it
means more to the Starks and what this says about Ned Stark’s actions in the
book. There is a great scene that is also in the series where Eddard is talking
to his daughter Arya about what will happen soon in King’s Landing because the
choices he’s made as the Hand and also because he believes her strongest of his
two daughters. To illustrate his point he asks her “What are our words?” to
which she replies, “Winter is Coming”.
He
goes on to explain why that is their house motto. Sure, it sounds like some
cool shit to say before you whack someone, but the book really drives it home
as a force that Eddard Stark believes in. Throughout much of the book, in his
time at King’s Landing, Eddard antagonizes himself and agonizes with the duties
of being the Hand of the King. Winter is
coming, he explains to Arya is the most deadly time with whole kingdoms
being decimated by not only the colds but also by what the long winter brings
to the land in creatures and brigands and only those that band together,
working out their differences and their quarrels and wars will survive the long
winters to see the summers again. This drives all of his actions in the book. He feels duty-bound, at whatever
personal cost to himself or his stature to make sure the realm is settled and
everyone, while not friends, have settled their stupid business of politics and
warring because “winter is coming.”
That is lost in the TV series as it is played up for more political intrigue
and sex.
By
far one of the best series I have started. But nothing comes close to:
Three
Kingdoms, attributed to Luo Guanzhong – This will forever be a part of any
favorites list for the rest of my life. I enjoy it that much. I read this a
scant four times this past year and plan to re-read it again once the chance
comes up. Sure, I have had someone tell me that it is about a bunch of
privileged men fighting for other privileged men to maintain a hierarchal,
obsolete status quo. But that is only because you think you are smarter than
the material my freind. I firmly believe that what you take from a book is
sometimes more important than author intent. The author’s purpose may have been
to give righteousness to Liu Bei’s hegemony. But what comes from this book are
great stories of bravery and valor and putting your integrity where your mouth
is and fighting for what you believe to be the right thing. A friend of mine is
still making these false class divisions in lieu of seeing the need for
integrity of every man. That’s is what I get from the book and that has helped
me try to be a person of integrity in my own life. So, it remains my All-Time
Favorite Book. I will be buried with a copy….
So,
now we move from the printed page to motion pictures. Before I get into this
year’s list of Best Movies, I like to look at the DVDs I acquired this year,
not only new ones released this year but anything I bought as well as a way of
revisiting movies from past years and give them a second look or a more
thorough review. And, here we go:
Top DVDs of 2012
From
the Sky Down – This is the U2 documentary that I wanted to make. It covers
the period U2 spent making their masterpiece album Achtung Baby!. Davis Guggenhiem, director of It Might Get Loud (a nice piece on the electric guitar NOT the best
guitar players as some idiots believe.), An
Inconvenient Truth (the watershed environmental doc which is basically a
large Powerpoint presentation) and the dubious Waiting for Superman (his one-sided critique of the US public
school system.) traces the background, the fast rise and just-as-fast backlash
of U2’ The Joshua Tree success and
how it nearly broke up the band and how this struggle lead to their rebranding
and cutting one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
Godzilla
(Criterion) – I already
have a two-disc collection of Gojira
by Toho Works that has both the original Japanese and the comically edited US
version of the film. But once I heard that Criterion was going to release them
with a superior restoration, only one thing came to mind: Special Features.
Besides, I am not beyond owning more than one copy of a DVD if it is something
I really like. Most fans are aware that the Japanese version is really not a
giant monster movie but serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons and their
destruction. But the deeper meanings are always lost on US audiences that deem The Avengers as the greatest movie ever.
So as usual, we took a deep metaphor disguised as a monster movie and turned it
into a Japanese-movie-through-an-American-lens colloquialism of a guy in a
rubber suit smashing tiny buildings for our amusement and our ego of loving
such ironic things. Still, Criterion did a great job with this.
Game
of Thrones Season One
– The HBO series. What more needs to be said. I bought this series, sight-unseen
after hearing many great reviews of it. I was not disappointed. Am now eagerly
awaiting Season Two on DVD. Yeah, I know. I don’t have cable, satellite for
watching TV nor do I like DSL for watching movies online. (If it’s not on TV
you cannot call it a TV show.) I don’t even have a digital converter or
antennae. It is a greatly produced series with a great cast. This has become
one of my Top Five TV Series of All Time.
Supercop
(Dragon Dynasty) – There are movies out there that you do not know that you
want until you see them for sale. I picked up Supercop at Half Price Books apropos of nothing. It was on sale at
a reasonable rate. I love Michelle Yeoh (and she is super cute in this) and I
have never owned a Jackie Chan movie. I miss Dragon Dynasty. They were putting
out some great stuff. This is one of the Police Story series (Police Story 2, I believe) and was
repackaged after Rumble in the Bronx
hit big in the US. However, this is the US re-edit as the Taiwan version is a
bit less fun and more gritty (if such a thing exists). But, that does nothing
to take away from the stunt work of Chan and Yeoh. The film was initially released
in the US on the heels of their respective successes in Rumble and Crouching Tiger.
Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy – This is yet another great Gary Oldman performance who is
going so criminally under-noticed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. I dig this movie a lot. It is a taut spy thriller that captures the
feel of the era it is based in. What I hate about movies these days is that
when they set movies in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s is that everyone looks too
perfect and beautiful to be from those eras. This casts on talent and that pays
off greatly in my opinion. Oldman’s Smiley monolgue about his meeting with
Karla remains one of the best onscreen monologues ever. (Actors should use it
in their auditions, it’s that good.) Go check this out if you haven’t already,
if so, check it out again!
The
Dark Knight Rises – I have a few ways I measure what I think is a great movie.
One is if I am smiling while leaving the theater. The second is if I really am
filled with the passion to make movies. The last is how many times I play it over
the first day once I get it on DVD. I played Hero, The Dark Knight, Red Cliff, The Tree of Life, Inception and
now, The Dark Knight Rises. I just
play them over and over and over in my DVD player once I get them home. Movies
are great like that…. (SEE BELOW)
All
right, now that we have those out of the way. Let’s recap some of the movies I
was looking forward to this past year. It is always a good excuse to revisit
some that you enjoyed but didn’t think were the best and to critique the films
you thought to be pretty bad. So, without further ado:
THE TOP 10 FILMS I WAS
LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR 2012 – A RECAP:
1. The Dark Knight Rises
dir. Christopher Nolan
SEE
BELOW
2. Prometheus dir. Ridley
Scott – released June 8, 2012
While
I was glad we did not see a Kid Ellen Ripley unleashing the alien xenomorphs
through her cute-kid antics, uncovering a super-supreme-ultra-extreme-maxi-secret
Corporate Conspiracy that will “redefine how we view the Aliens Movies” and
then have a lame CGI climax with millions of xenomorphs and millions of space
marines running at each other amidst ‘splosions, I was disappointed that he did
indeed make this a f*cking ALIEN PREQUEL! Ridley did the Lucas thing where he
just had to over-explain his most iconic villain. The 3D was great, the best I
had seen in films up to that point not including documentary films. But, while
I enjoyed it, it is not the extreme disappointment many take it for. If Ridley
left the Alien connection of the
xenomorph and the conspiracy of the aging man out and fixated on the
explorations of humanity’s origins and built something scary and fun from that,
it would have been a better success. As it is, it carries way too much Alien baggage and that is what drags it
down for me.
3. Red Tails dir. Anthony
Hemingway – released January 20, 2012
A
film about the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the squadron of African-American fighter
pilots that went on to rack up the best records during WWII. It was great to
see a Lucasfilm slate in front of a non-Star Wars/Indy Jones movie. This was a
rather enjoyable war mvoie. It was great to see a simple action film with great
heroic story beats. Sure, there was dialogue about racism but it was more in
context of their service and delivered as a fact-of-life rather than speechy
platitudes. The mostly African-American audience I saw this with were cheering
and walked out proud of this part of their history rather than get another
Victim Olympics Lip Service.
Many
of the non-African American audience were disgusted with its easy story and
plotless heroic antics and overly-criticized the CG because it was a George
Lucas production and he is evil because how dare he let an African-American
director make a heroic film about African Americans! (Because the Tuskegee
Airmen were supposed to be martyr symbols of the Oppressed and not Heroes!)
Also, how dare George Lucas tell African Americans about their own history
while giving an absolute pass to Quentin Tarantino about slavery? (and his film
about violence because African Americans are violent and NOT heroic.) Hypocrites.
Apples
and oranges I’m sure I’ll be told, different things to be measured differently.
Lucas sucks, Tarantino is awesome. But they are both the same in exactly the
very feature that should fucking count. They are both MOVIES! We seem to be
slipping into this overspecializing of everything where things fail to stand on
their own anymore. This movie is great for that type of movie and we elevate
mediocrity like it’s something worth achieving. Soon, we will never see great
films because we elevate comic book movies, because we want spectacle, to be
entertained and our idea of an art film is a violent slave film told to us by a
white guy. Come on. We pat ourselves on the back for liking “art films” and
ironically liking shitty films. But that gives credence to that huge nugget of
film slop projected every day! That is why the Twilights and the Superhero
Films will never go away. They make too much money, which is another feature
that all these movies share: they are nothing but moneymaking products. We seem
to not want to admit that because if we do we all have to admit being duped into
paying for “art.”
Anyways.
Anthony Hemingway & The Airmen. It was a good film and I enjoyed it. So
there.
4. Skyfall dir. Sam Mendez
(SEE
BELOW)
5. Gravity, dir. Alfonso
Cuaron
(DELAYED
– SEE BELOW)
6. The Flowers of War dir.
Zhang Yimou
SEE
BELOW
7. Coriolanus dir. Ralph
Fiennes
SEE
BELOW
8. Brave, dir Pete Doctor
(Pixar)
SEE
BELOW
9. Flying Swords of Dragon
Gate 3D, dir Tsui Hark – Limited August 2012 release on IMAX 3D.
This
only got a one-week IMAX 3D release in August at a time I was so broke I could
not afford to go. I missed out on the craziness of what Tsui Hark could do when
purposely shooting on 3D! The DVD is out but I have no interest. I am thinking
that 3D may be viable in a broader film-going sense but as the cool tool for
telling stories? Nope, not sold. Yet. (See Note Below.)
10. The Hobbit: An
Unexpected Journey dir. Peter Jackson – released December 14, 2012
I
have said this before and I still think it sticks: it should have been titled Peter Jackson’s The Well: There and Back
Again.
This
was pretty much nothing more than a Lord
of the Rings rehashing, like the cloying “prrreeeeeciiiiiooouuussss”, as if
to say, “Hey Fans, remember The Lord of
the Rings? This will be just like it!” What should have been basically a
movie for kids and young adults is turned into a “The Lord of the Rings”
Prequel! It suffers from what Prometheus
and the Star Wars Prequels did, in
that it had to explain and set up every single detail of the previous trilogy.
At this rate, this will suffer even more for being stretched into a sequel trilogy
without the material to fill it. If it does have the material the tone will be
too inconsistent to get into. If you recognize a part of this review from my
article from last year, you got exactly what I got from The Hobbit: A Expected Journey to the Well.
Oh
yeah, it was in 3D too.
A NOTE on HFR & 3D
The
first time I saw 3D really work was with U23D,
which was a concert film, then again with Wim Wender’s Pina. Which leads me to believe that documentary films would profit
much more from being shot for 3D projection. Where it worked for me in a regular feature films were Prometheus, Monsters, Inc., The Legends
of the Guardians (which gave me hope for Snyder’s Man of Steel, because the flying scenes in this were spectacular!) and
most recently, The Hobbit. 3D for
each of these worked showing scope and depth of field, which is what it is
supposed to do. So, now I want to shoot a 3D concert film and am planning a
couple of documentaries that could be shot in 3D. That would be cool and add
immersion and space into the stories. So, for documentaries, 3D would be
everything that silly people are saying it was supposed to be and never was for
movies like Hugo.
Honestly,
I had no problem like I thought I would with the high frame rate projection of The Hobbit. Most movie snobs believe
that “real movies” are to be projected at 24 frames per second. The human eye
sees at the equivalent of 1000fps or something. (Did I just make that up?) I
always through a great story and acting were keys to a great movie, but that’s
just me. But the image was crisp and clear and once my eyes adjusted, it was
fine. Sure, it took me out of the moments because I could see the phoniness of
some of the sets and costumes. It made me think of how little effort was put
into some of the costuming and sets. But in the future, I think this high frame
rate will be a boon for set directors, builders, make up and costumers as they
will all have to raise their game to not make it look fakey due to newer high
frame rates! I did get a wicked headache afterwards though.
Plus,
once I adjust, the 3D did work better and once the clarity of image and 3D were
forgotten about, I could concentrate and see what an utter load of shit The Hobbit was. Here is the rest of the
list from last year, a short section I called “The Maybe’s” because I may see
them and they may be good. In this case, I was wrong on all counts:
The Maybe’s of 2012:
Marvel’s The Avengers: This shallow quagmire should have been titled “The Second Halves of Iron Man 2, Thor and First
Avenger about a Super Group No One Cared About Until It Tickled Your Comic
Geek Egos Starring Robert Downey Jr. Being a Wise Ass to Bland Maskless
Superheroes and Then They Save the Day By Pushing the OFF Switch (Oh Yeah,
There Will Be A Sequel and Hulk is Finally Cool.)” That’s what it should
have been called.
Django Unchained: Django
felt cheap to me at the expense of a solid tale. Again, it was filled with
underdeveloped characters and side characters that added nothing to the tale.
Everyone liked it because it tickled their balls with historical vengeance
violence nonsense. Hell, I liked it too a little but it was nothing new from QT
who seems to get a pass for it for some reason.
Let’s
face it, we like to see cool shit happen because it tickles our ticklies and
gives us some vicarious satisfaction without ever hoping that films can aspire
to be something greater. Django
suffers from the same thing Inglorious
Basterds did – shallow storytelling, filled with undeveloped side
characters and villain all masked by hype casting and the stealing of tone and
ideas from his betters. Cheap because the added baggage of slavery makes anyone
that is a slaver character simply evil. Yes, slavery is evil, in a historical
sense. In a film sense it is a cheap way of vilifying the bad guy without
coming up with great characteristics that gives your villain weight.
Leo’s
Calvin Candie is a plantation owner that does nothing in service of the plot.
Really. He even sells back Django’s wife. By simply making him a slaver, his
evil is evident and that gives the audience license to cheer when he is killed.
His evilness is cheaply bought in a filmic sense. What if he was actually
someone that was likeable? How would that play against the fact that he is a
slaver? Nope, Candie was literally a mustachio-twirling villain for no other
reason than the story needed one. All the hype casting was for nothing but
little jolts of humor of seeing Tom Wopat, Don Johnson and Jonah Hill say funny
shit and then left at the way side, adding nothing to the overall plot.
This
was so top-loaded with slavery guilt that only allowed QT to indulge his
“motherf*ckers” and “n*ggers” and violence without ever really making anything
interesting. I almost could have bought the whole thing until the film
embarrasses itself with that little dance shuffle Django makes the horse do as
if to say “Yeah, we’ll still dance for you all.” What dreck. I had more to say
but I would rather not dwell on this one any longer because it’s a spectacle
and that makes it all right.
GI Joe 2: MOVED TO MARCH
2013 but I am fast
becoming less and less interested in it.
The Expendables 2:
I finally saw Expendables 2 on
DVD recently. Sucked worse than the first. No plot. Just action stars trying to
do cool, manly shit. I don’t care who was in it. If you cannot bring something
fresh and new to the genre you helped establish then stay home. There is
nothing worse than old, great rock bands doing nothing but reunion tours and
playing the hits. (Which is why I am glad Zep never reunited.) This was simply
playing the hits, and not very well. The greatest cardinal sin, other than
shitty dialogue like “His name was BILLY’ as your dramatic punch, is that no
one, NO ONE, NO ONE, NO ONE is allowed to have the theme to “The Good, The Bad and
the Ugly” played over their introduction into the film but CLINT EASTWOOD AND
BOBA FETT!!
This
one did not make me sad. It made me laugh at that particular line delivery. But
it also made me angry at the waste of talent here. Which makes me question the
talent pool to begin with….
So,
there you go, my thoughts on films that I was looking forward to this year. I
was about 50% on the films I liked in the Upcoming Films of 2012. But, there
are many not on the list that I did see and whom others had great opinions
about. What did I think of them? Well, here you go:
The Others of 2012
Looper
– Clever casting cannot
mask the fact that this was simply a The
Terminator rehash when it could have been the most awesome supervillian
origin story since Unbreakable.
The
Raid: Redemption –
Not much raiding and not much redemption. It amazes me at how much manly men
love watching sweaty shirtless men beating up on each other. The non-stop
screaming and thrashing only reminded me of this.
The
Master – Should have
been subtitled, “or How to Torture a
Drunk for Fun and Profit”. I am sure an eclectic, improv theater troupe
will make a play based on this movie with that subtitle. This made me realize
that the real reason I loved There Will
Be Blood was because of Daniel Day-Lewis. (See Lincoln Below.) Now it seems every “ack-tor” wants that single
Plainview performance and overreach for it. This was Joaquin Phoenix’s shot at
it and his nonsense distracted me. Phillip Seymour-Hoffman tried to but ended
up looking bored through out. I have decided that this has to be, HAS TO BE a PREQUEL to Manos the Hands of Fate. It’s the only
way I can reconcile everyone’s love for it.
Crooked
Arrows – Okay, get ready to hate me: What should have been a great,
fun sports comedy ala The Bad News Bears
is so laden down with historical trauma and a director that could not balance
the two that is misses it’s one chance to bring Natives into contemporary
cinema and shine a larger light on the Iroquois sport of Lacrosse. But now,
thanks to underworked films like this, these will never get beyond reservation
boundaries.
Once
again we fight against evil white corporate interests. When will we tell the
tales of Tribal Council corruption and our own intertribal bickering and
infighting? Those are ripe for comedy! Dave Spencer had it right, the scene of
handing out the magical animal totems made me choke. They had a great set up
for it to be a great David versus Goliath tale with the Natives proving their
worth on the field as equals. Instead, we get “Hey, you boys needs magic
because you are not talented enough in the sport OUR PEOPLE FRICKIN’ INVENTED!!”
Look,
there is absolutely nothing wrong at all with being tied to your culture and
knowing your people’s language. But knowing your culture always gets confused
with the Crutch that is supposed to get us out of things for free in movies.
Knowing your culture is fine but the other 90% is hard work. This film does not
work for it as either a sports comedy or a cultural identity film. Sorry.
What
I found silly:
Cliché of the Wise Old Indian Man
Cliché of the Wise Old FUNNY Indian Woman
Cliché of flashing back to the buckskin
and feathers and the yelping and the running, lots of running
Cliché of animal totems
Cliché of “Our People” in every other
sentence
Historical Lecturing – no Indian I have
ever known talks like that!
Racism against whites – another crutch in
films.
The Insult to Native Women when the
Indian Hero (Superman no less) falls for the only white woman on the rez
Cliché of young Indian Women are only
attracted to the loser Indian Boy
That the white person knows more of the
language and has to teach the INDIANS to speak it! Sheesh!
I
know a lot of Natives liked this movie. But I think another rewrite of the
script and maybe a Native director that says “no” so some of the clichés would
have helped it immensely. Native directors need to start putting out more genre
works like Crooked Arrows, which was
supposed to be a sports comedy. Because when you don’t you are never going to
reach a broader audience and begin to break down those barriers. Can you
imagine a basketball comedy film by Sherman Alexie? That would be funny! Look,
it had everything going for it until it stopped to lecture about every ten
minutes.
Send
your hate email c/o Dave, AIC….
Well
enough of that. So, what did I think were the best films this past year? Okay,
here’s what you are waiting for. (I think.):
EW3’s Top Twelve (Ten) a’
Twenty Twelve Movies
Honorable
Mentions:
Skyfall – What worried me most was the producers
throwing out words like “Connery” and “Goldfinger” when asked about tone and
story when for the last two films, they had to do no such thing. I hoped they
would not start steering this series back into campy-gadget territory. I did
enjoy this overall and I did like the touchstones to the older films, but
steering it back to status quo is not the way to go. I’ll have to wait and see
if they continue on this track. Great cinematography by the great Roger Deakins
and ably directed by Sam Mendes.
Lincoln – No matter what you think of the
Lincoln of history, you cannot deny the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis in this
film. He carries the whole film on his shoulders, quite ably. But it went on a
bit long and suffered from the whole “should have ended earlier” thing. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, Lincoln was sucky towards Indians, which is historical truth, but
Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln? Spectacular! And we all know, spectacle counts
more! Tommy Lee Jones was great and has a great character pay-off as well.
12.
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
I
find myself luck enough to live in a city where I can see the classics on the
big screen. I can only imagine how I would have been a different person had I
access to these back in the small hamlet of Riverton where I grew up. I admit
that this #12 is a cheat because I include three films in it. But what films.
They still hold up against what ever else was put out this year. It is too bad
the current generation cannot stand movies without color or 3D. These were
digitally remastered digital projections and they looked great but of course it
is the story and characters that continue to enthrall audiences today. They
just don’t make them like these anymore. Funny, great story and great
performance based on great writing used to count for something at one time.
11. Rifftrax Live: “Manos The Hands of Fate”
Rifftrax Live: “Birdemic: Shock and
Terror”
Monsters Inc.
Once
again, I cheat to bring you some selections based on theater-going experience
that beat out some of the previous films listed. I am a big fan of Mystery
Science Theater 3000, you know this and the sequel project Rifftrax have
produced some live riffing of some of the worse films ever. In 2012 we got two
of the worst, Manos and Birdemic. For Birdemic
we brought along Char and she enjoyed the event though says I scarred her for
live with the awfulness that is Birdemic.
Monsters, Inc. 3D was another
enjoyable romp with Char as we saw this together when it first came out. The 3D
was great and it was a joy to see the film again on the big screen and to be
able to share that with Bonnie and Char was the added bonus.
10.
Safety
Not Guaranteed – Directed by Colin Trevorrow: A small independent film
about a news blogger answering an ad for a time travel partner. It was dark and
mysterious and the lead actress Aubrey Plaza didn’t bother me too much because she did
not play the same character she always does. What made the movie for me was the
intimacy of the characters’ relationships. We have the blogger connecting with
someone everyone thinks is crazy. We have her boss trying to reconnect with a
lost, high school love and a nerdy guy trying to connect at all. What surprised
me most, after seeing the trailer and the promotions for this and even seeing
the movie, was that it is billed as a comedy! Sure, there were funny moments,
like the time traveler’s breaking into a research facility for parts but it
never came off as a comedy. Still, it was touching, especially seeing her boss,
in what would have typically been played as a privileged white douche in other
films, struggling with his feelings for his old love. Great little film.
9.
Take
This Waltz, written and
directed by Sarah Polley: Another independent film. I am falling more in lust
with Michelle Williams, after My Week
with Marilyn and now this, a small drama about life not living up to your
expectations and the temptation to move on to someone else. Sarah Silverman
turns up in a great role as the smartest person in the film, a recovering
alcohol who sees the same type need in the Michelle Williams’ character, as she
is tempted to start a relationship with a neighbor. Instead of alcohol, it is
lust. It was great to see Silverman in a non-snarky, non-vulgarity role. Seth Rogan
is in this as well and he surprises bringing a warmth and humanity to the role
of Michelle Williams’ husband. A great film about the desire to give into your
lust and its consequences.
8.
The
Impossible – Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona: The true story of a
Spanish family (here, played as Brits) that survived the tsunami that
devastated Thailand. A solid escape tale with harrowing scenes of flooding and
destruction. What truly anchors the film is the performance of the child
actors. It becomes a taut thriller as the disparate members of the family
trying mightily to find one another again. The only thing that bugged me was
before the end credits they show a picture of the family and you realized that
they whitewashed the family. It was a great story and expertly shot film but
that stuck in my craw. Still, a better film than most of what was out there.
7.
Argo, directed by Ben Affleck: This is a
solid thriller about the unseen Iranian hostage crisis story of the government
of Canada helping the US extricate embassy staff using a phony film as a cover.
Affleck continues his string of solid films as a director and I hope he never
does a superhero or Star Wars film, ever. He’s too talented a director to be
squandered on the likes of such commercial pap. As with The Impossible seeing a picture of the real agent that Affleck
plays, you realize that Esai Morales or Michael Pena would have been closer to
the real guy because Affleck did great in matching actors to the actual person
they were portraying. Stuck in the craw again, but another great flick out
there.
6.
The
Flowers of War – Directed by Zhang Yimou: Now, I did not see this in
the theater. It only played a short time when I was severely broke. But
catching it on DVD did not diminish the impact of the story. Zhang Yimou
tackles a tale from the Rape of Nanking where an American mortician must
pretend to be a priest to protect a cadre of Chinese schoolgirls left behind in
the maelstrom of the Japanese invasion. Add to this mixture, a class of
high-end Chinese prostitutes that push their way into the school and hide there
as well. Then, as always with a Yimou film, the difficult choices reached in
the emotional climax of the film must be seen. I do not want to ruin it for
anyone. It has action, with a Chinese soldier lingering around the school
protecting the girls from Japanese soldiers, it has light comedic moments and
it shows the horror visited upon the women but its depths are the emotional
attachments made between the girls and the women, with the Mortician and one of
the Prostitutes, and it all wraps up in the emotional ending of the film. I
highly recommend this one.
5.
Brave
– Produced by Pixar, Directed by Marc Andrews and Brenda Chapman: What I loved
most about this latest offering from Pixar, besides the clear throughline of
the story was that it was a tale about a mother and a daughter and the bonding
they go through as they work to solve their many predicaments. Lovely animation
as always, funny and caring. Check it out.
4.
Coriolanus
– Directed by Ralph Fiennes, based on the play by William Shakespeare – When I
first saw the trailer for this, I could not wait. I scraped up my change and
saw it twice. This is the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes and he plays
Coriolanus with a savage privilege and makes the battle scenes intense and his
couching it into modern times fits. I know there are the purists who prefer
Shakespeare be kept to Elizabethan structures, but we would miss out on such
powerhouses as Baz Luhmanns’ Romeo +
Juliet and the performance of John Leguizamo as Tybalt, Brangh’s Muc Ado about Nothing as well as solid adaptations
that color and flavor the stories with cultural spices. Here, Fiennes adds
another great adaptation to the list. If this is his first work, imagine what
he can accomplish as a director. All the actors bring their A-game. But who
shines is Brian Cox not playing someone slimy. Plus, he gets a good performance
from Gerard Bulter! It also highlights the fickle nature of crowd politics. A
great movie.
1.
TIE: The Dark Knight Rises – Directed by
Christopher Nolan
On the Ice –
Directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Directed
by Benh Zeitlin
You
can see my thoughts on The Dark Knight
Rises by CLICKING HERE. Nolan crafted another great film to close the Dark
Knight Trilogy. Sure, some where let down but I was enthralled by the emotion
of the story and closure it lent, which is something no one tries for anymore.
I
saw On the Ice way back in January
and I was hard pressed to find a better film all year. Nothing came close to
the intimacy of the story and the environment. It was expertly directed and the
performances of the two leads shine in a story about the mystery of a missing
youth in the far north where there are limited places to hide both in the
landscape and in one’s heart. As I said, I was hard pressed to find a better
film, but one came even.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is told through the lens of the lead
character, a small girl named Hushpuppy. She struggles with the flooded area
called the Bath Tub with her father Wink. They are engrained in the community
of people as they struggle with melting ice caps and monsters from the past.
The lead actress Quvenzhané Wallis is a wonder and the cinematography is a
wonder. The magic of the film had me in tears hoping it worked to save one of
the characters. A great movie. Both are great. All three are great....
Well, that's it for 2012. Now, we will look ahead to this year. I know, it seems that everyone is doing an "Anticipated Films" list these day. But what can I say. I like comparing the lists the next year. Besides, it's the final list of this post so stop bellyaching:
Top Ten Films I am Looking
Forward to in 2013
1.
Man of Steel, dir. Zack Snyder –
After seeing Legend of the Guardians: The
Owls of Ga’hoole I was a bit reassured that Zack Snyder could handle a
mythology and flying. The trailers look great. I cannot believe people are
dismissing this because he isn’t wearing red underwear over his suit. TRAILER
2.
Gravity, dir. Alfonso Cuaron – I have been ever impressed with
Mexican filmmaker Cuaron. He made me a fan of the Harry Potter series, his Y Tu Mama Tambian made me feel I can
still make it as an “ethnic” moviemaker and his Children of Men is an unsung masterpiece. This time he is trying
longer takes in telling the story of two astronauts trying to survive a
satellite crashing into their space station. George Clooney and Sandra Bullock
star. TRAILER N/A.
3.
Pacific Rim, dir. Guillermo Del Toro
– A movie about a world that builds giant robots to fight kaiju? What is not to
love? TRAILER
4.
Unforgiven, (Yurusarezaru mono) dir. Lee Sang-Il – We have come full circle
when a Clint Eastwood western inspires a samurai film. Looking forward to
seeing this get a US release without the Weinsteins getting their re-editing
hands on it. TRAILER
5.
Stand Up Guys, dir Fischer Stevens –
It is good to see Walken and Pacino try acting again for a change. Looks fun
and warm. TRAILER
6.
The Grandmaster, dir. Wong Kar-Wai –
Another, more stylized version of the Ip Man story with a great as always Tony
Leung playing the lead in a cool ass fedora! TRAILER
7.
Star Trek Into Darkness dir. J.J.
Abrhams – I dunno. This looks like it could be fun but everyone is
expecting it to be about Khan from the old series. Hardcore Trekkies hate the
Abrams-verse. I don’t care. Looks like fun. TRAILER
8.
Much Ado About Nothing dir Joss Whedon
– I like Shakespeare adaptations and am happy to see Whedon stretch his wings.
I only hope his fanbase allows him to. I have not heard a lot of fans clamoring
for this one. They want more Avengers or a Whedon Star Wars, forget some of the
greatest literary plays of all time, we want spectacle! TRAILER N/A
9.
To the Wonder dir Terrence Malick –
Another Dunno. I was fully onboard the Malick Train after the fantastic Tree of Life and followed him to The Thin Red Line which I love more than
Private Ryan. But the only thing catching my eye about this is the character
played by Javier Bardem. Was “meh” about The
New World and have yet to see Badlands or Days of Heaven both of
which will be available by Criterion. TRAILER
10.
Journey to the West dir Stephen Chow
– Another adaptation of one of China’s Five Great Literary Classics, this one
has Donnie Yen playing the Monkey King. We’ll see. TRAILER
The
Maybe’s of 2013:
The Assassins – Zhao
Linshan, finally, Chow
Yun-fat plays Cao Cao as a pair of assassins plot his death, until one of them
realizes he is not the insidious evil he was made out to be. I hope a US release. TRAILER
Evil Dead – The remake no one wanted. Still the
trailer makes it stand above other remakes which are simple rehashes, going
over old ground. TRAILER
World War Z – This has changed so much from its
literary origins that I think some folks would like it better if it were called
something else. I love the book which is the only zombie thing I cared for in a
while Zombies are the most useless of horror creatures. TRAILER
Monsters U. – This is yet another sequel/prequel
from Pixar which have had various degrees of success. It is about the college
years of Mike and Sully. In the Monsters Inc 3D version, there was an added stinger of Mike
and Sully putting on the musical they used as a cover for their weird behavior
and introduced the character of Mike’s mother, whom I assume plays a part in
this movie. TRAILER
Despicable Me 2 – I loved the first one and I hope that
this concentrates on his raising his little girls to be supervillians because
that would be cool and original. But from the teaser, it centers on the
Minions, the least annoying cute thing since the mowgli. TRAILER
The Wolverine – This is the the SIXTH film to feature
this character, this time transporting him to Japan to learn ninjistu (sound
familiar? It should, it was the best series Frank Miller put out in the run of
the Wolverine comics.). With an aging Hugh Jackman, we’ll see if the immortal
Wolverine still shreds. TRAILER N/A
What
about all the Marvel Sequels such as Iron Man 3 and Thor 2? Well, maybe since
the The Avengers pressure is off
maybe they can have complete films with a beginning, middle and end this time,
you know? But, I was recently MAJORLY spoiled with IM3 and now, I find it less
interesting....
Thanks
for sticking with it this far. I know some pretty expected selections, but hey,
maybe I threw a curve at you here and there. Let me know what you think. I’ll
see you here next year.
Until
Next Time…
2013
Ernest M. Whiteman III
