We Don’t Talk About Fight Club!

I know its the first and second rule but I want to talk about Fight Club. The Rio Theatre played a Late Night screening of this Gen X classic and it not only holds up, it may be getting better with age. It’s enduring coolness was recently verified while me and some friends were on the bar patio and my bud chastized me with “What’s the first rule of Fight Club?” and without missing a beat a hot, nicely dressed woman walking by chastizes him with “You Do Not Talk About Fight Club!” Fight Club lives on, as long as we go on not talking about it. (also SPOILERS WARNING!)

Fight Club is also one of those phenoms where initially a large segment of its fan base utterly missed the point. These were the angsty aggro dudes who bought into the mythos of the testosterone fueled vigilante, toughen up, pseudo-rebellion that is actually being parodied in the film. Its the danger of the charismatic sociopath as a protagonist, A Clockwork Orange  being another example. This contingent of Fight Clubers who are immune to irony seem to have dwindled with time. The Rio Theater was packed with people, more then half women, who were eager to revisit the joke of guys getting together to punch each other in the face as a last desperate grasp at manhood.

The biting cynical humour hasn’t lost its edge. In many ways it harkens us back to a pre 9/11 world where being a smart ass cynic wasn’t tantamount to treason. Rewatching Fight Club in the post-post 9/11 world is to show how cowed we’ve become to the culture of control. Try making a film where the climax is the bombing of all the credit company skyscrapers around the country, or where a woman whispers romanticallyin her lovers ear that she wants to have his abortion, or the viscious subverting of the think positive, support group self-help mentality which now seems to reign supreme. Not bloody likely.

They All Fall Down

When I last watched this film in 2010, in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, the films climax seemed both precient and  liberating. We would all have been better off had Tyler Durden carried out his plan, cleared the debt record and wiped out Lehman Brothers and the like. It had always puzzled me why Edward Norton’s character was so resistent to Project Mayhem, I mean, the buildings were emptied and nobody was hurt and it was more a representation of liberation from the unfair debt load increasingly hoisted upon the lower classes rather then actual physical distruction.  I guess it was that Norton played Tyler’s reasonable civilized side, that as much as he enjoyed the rebellion, he was at core the domesticated human, whereas Brad Pitt embodied his feral side. Norton couldn’t sleep because this human animal side was denied him by modern, middle class existence, thus Pitt manifested those drives supressed by domestication.

This time it all rang a little different. It’s 2013 and our Great Depression has been dragging on for five years now. So rather then the triumphant stick-it-to-em-ness while watching in 2010, this time it was another moment that shone through. It was Pitt’s speech about his generation not having their war, or their Great Depression, that in place of this was his rebellion against the numbing power of secured complacency. Watching this speech now is to view the passing of the Gen X ethos. Gen Y has its wars, Gen Y has its Great Depression, so as much as the themes of Fight Club are still relevent, this moment exposes a certain preveledged perpective where their acts of vandalism seem petty. Gen Y will not be the screw the system generation, Gen Y will be the take over the system generation. Sorry Gen X, at least we can all agree on disliking the Boomers.

“History calling, Marla speaking, how may I help you?”

Regardless of reading things into it, Fight Club is still awesomely entertaining. The film is flawlessly crafted, the humour sharp, the imagery powerful, the writing is tight.

I also had a genuine Fight Club moment at the screening. About half way through the movie I got really light headed and had to head to the washroom. I splashed my face with cold water to cool down and took a piss. I’m teetering on the edge of passing out so I sit down on the floor by the stalls. Not sure what the deal was, maybe dehydrated, so I sat dranking cold water from my beer glass (I only had 2 I swear!) Now, my hair is frazzled, I’m wearing some old plaid shirt, my fly is down, and I’m struggling to remain concious on the floor by some unflushed toilets with toilet paper strewn about. However, I’m not in an unpleasant way at all so I chat cheerfully with a dude when he comes in to take a piss. Anouther dude comes in, he’s dressed as the office version of Edward Norton with a large hand scrawled note pinned to his chest which I can’t quite read. The first dude leaves and office dude says “How are things sir?” I say I’m fine. “Can I brew you up some coffee sir?” I say no, I have some nice cold water and I should be good to go shortly. “Can I get you some more water sir?” I’m getting low so I accept. He takes my glass, empties it, waits for the tap to run cold fills it and hands it over. “Have a good night sir,” he says and takes off back to the movie. I feel better shortly after and head back myself. Watching the rest of the movie is when I realized why he kept calling me “sir,” its because I was Tyler Durden.

Fight Club will likely be a regular on the Rio Theatre roster, so next time it plays, be sure to check it out.

Oz The Great And Powerful ! (not the prison drama Oz but the one for kids)

 At face value this film has a lot to recommend it and as a night’s entertainment for the family, this movie should do just fine. The director, cast, source material and special effects all should add up to a wonderful and long overdue return to the land of Oz. Unfortunatly, beyond Box Office chattel,  not so much.

Hats!

There are things that work like the wonderful costumery, especially the hats. The shear number and variety of hats is impressive enough, but the care and design that went into them, and the entire waredrobe, are a pleasure to see.  The lavish production design and elaborate 3D special effects are admittedly dazzling but here also begins its problems.

The introduction, like the Wonderful Wizard oF Oz, is in black and white. It is the strongest segment of the story, introducing us to the irascible con man Oz scrapping by in a Kansas traveling carnival. Transitioning to the hypercoloured world of Oz the film goes flat and  the dynamism apparent in the B&W introduction vanishes never to be seen again. The story turns into a flimsy thing stringing together fantastical settings. The shooting style and performances suffer from Greenicitus, when characters just statically stand around in front of a green screen, a symptom of being too effects focused. You can tell how restricted the film becomes as it slaves to the requirements of the effects.

There’s got to be a story around here somewhere

Now Raimi has done several major effects productions, including the three Spiderman films. While some of these problems arose in the first Spiderman, the second and third had vanquished these problems so its somewhat tragic to see a Raimi film suffering so. My guess is so much money went to the computer side of things that the production shoots were done on the cheap. The mountain backdrop to one of Oz’s speeches was so false looking it brought to mind Tommy Wiseau’s roof top scenes from The Room! 

The cast should be wonderful, talented, charming, beautiful; yet there is little for them to do even as they represent iconic characters deep set in our collective culture. Aside from the problem of being left to emote standing in a green screened studio the script is so weak I can hardly blame them for struggling through the material. Which brings us to the real problem with Oz The Great And Powerful: the story.

Behind me, all green screen baby!

There are so many problems with the story its hard to know where to begin. It’s a stretch to call them characters as the mechanics of it are so sparse and blatent its hard to take any joy in their stories. The writing is so lazy that what should be have the epic sweep of one of the greatest fantasias ever imagined feels claustrophopic and pitiful. This is not a glimpse into an expansive magical world, its a narrow corrador with 3D wallpaper.

True Oz stories are also rooted in central female characters. This production subverts that whole tradition, relagating the women folk to secondary roles as silly creatures waiting for and endlessly servicing the vainglory of an unscrupulous man who through no effort or merit, is given imminent power over all their lives. Even the powerful witches of Oz become nothing more then weak female cliches defined only through their relationship to this guy who just happen to show up. The doting girlfriend Glenda, the bitter ex of the west given to tantrums, the scheaming female pretending to power and, well, that’s it really. Pretty lame considering the impressive history of women in Oz which was intrinsic to its lasting power as a story. In this Oz The Great And Powerful could be looked at as an indicative reflection of how our culture views the roles of women with Disney producing the reinforcing propaganda. That this prequel records the great steps backwards we’ve been taking in our portrayals of women.

This is also an oddity for Raimi, his film Drag Me To Hell had a strong woman driving the story and tackling adversity head on. None of that here, just wait for some man to come and he’ll take care of everything as long as you put up with whatever he does and baselessly believe in him with all your heart. The original point of the Wizard had been to help Dorothy realize that the power is within her and that he is nothing but smoke and mirrors, the exact opposite of what this film presents to us.

The China Girl as the cute little side kicked was the only character that felt at all right. Her animating effects and voice work were also superb.

Mila Kunis is sadly gets the worst of it, the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West reduced to screaming tandrums because some boy didn’t like her as much as she thought he did. Her perfomance seemed lost and inconsistent but I can hardly blame her, there didn’t really seem to be much for her to go on.

The witch battle at the end between Glenda and Evanora was not bad but too short and simple. Its not often we get to see an all out witch battle so it seems like a wasted opportunity. In fact most of this movie is composed of wasted opportunity, all posturing with little to no payoff.

Oz The Great And Powerful isn’t as bad as the atrocious Alice that Disney put out a few years ago, though suffering from remarkably similar problems. Alice  being subplanted by the MadHatter, greenicitus, lazy writing, a director and a cast that promise quality but fail, lots of effects and little satisfaction. At least Oz  didn’t have a silly MadHatter dance. I never thought I would feel embarrassed for Johnny Depp but then there it was.

So come on Disney, if you’re going to hijack our culture at least put out some half decent children’s lit adaptations. You butchered Wonderland, you’ve sullied Oz, what’s next on your list of appropriation and degradation? Using these classic tales for little more then name recognition is an utter waste of production and an insult to the young audiences you are so rapaciously coralling into a twisted vision of the world. Make all the crap you want, but if you’re going to seal up the great fables of history in your copyright portfolios, put a little effort into following the spirit behind them. The canon’s of these great masterpieces will surely reject these tepid entries. History will tell.

Addendum (March 18, 2013): …then my blood sugar crashes and I’m ranting about Disney. The language may be a bit tart but it does stick in ones craw to watch these timeless tales reduced to such uninspired depths, so no recant!

I also recalled Sam Raimi’s other, more famous, female protagonist, Xena: Warrior Princess! That alone should put to rest any doubt about Raimi’s ability to handle female characters. 

The producer of this film is Joe Roth who also produced Disney’s 2010 Alice so their similar faults make sense. He was also an uncredited executive producer for Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers so I guess he’s not ALL bad.

Gangster Squad be Gangsta yo!

Time to talk about an actual movie, so let’s start with 2013’s kick ass Gangster Squad. (SPOILERS WARNING)

It has been an ongoing challenge for Hollywood to recapture the enigmatic magic of classic Film Noir. It’s attempts over the decades have meet with varying success but the real Noir feel has remained ineffibly elusive. Even a lauded film like L.A. Confidential never really hits the mark. Gangster Squad changes all that.

It’s most powerful attribute is it’s light touch. Gangster Squad comes roaring out of the gates with one thing on its mind, to entertain the fuck out of you. GS embraces the pulpy, gritty, lurid elements of pure entertainment that drove the origional Noir’s. It doesn’t dwell or get caught up in ideas of what half a centuryof analysis has said about what made Noir’s great. Instead it glories in those things the audiences went to see them for, and what audiences still want out of a quality picture: dames, toughs and tommy guns. 

GS beats out the other NeoNoir’s in that it actual captures the tone of cynicism that ran through the origionals. The cynicism in the NeoNoirs  always rang a little false so I’m going to put GS into a Post-NeoNoir catagory. The tone that GS captures is far more genuine. In part I believe this is generational, the Boomer generation just couldn’t get a handle on the spirit of relentlessly crushed expectations like the Great Gen and the Post Boomers.

The NeoNoir’s couldn’t get the fatalistic quality of men and women who keep getting burned and who know they will keep getting burned no matter what they do.  The first conversation between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone captures it perfectly, the same “What’s your racket, not that it matters because even the truth is a lie” mentality that underpinned the moral ambiguity of the origional Noirs.   

The waredrobe, cinematography and period art deco ceaselessly dazzle the eye. I could go on in detail about all the visual splendors but instead will summerize that this film is absolutely gorgeous.

Style and striking visual beauty go hand in hand with the brutal violence perpetrated with habitual ease. This is a post war story with hard men who’ve endured the heaviest combat in history, the Second World War II. The soldiers who fought Hitler came back to a Homeland over run with rot and corrution. The war warped many who went abroad to fight, gangster toughs with military training and equipment that were able to make mincemeat of civic forces. Thus begins Ganster Squad, where good men must defend the Law guerrilla style.

GS may have a light touch but it handles this moral/ethical grey zone quite deftly and cinematically. When Sgt. John O’Mara gears up and goes for the throat, he is not out to kill Gangster Kingpin Mickey Cohen, he is out to arrest him, discredit him and destroy the mythos of the Criminal Overlord. He may work outside the Law to get there but the most important scene of the film is O’Mara’s moment of physical triumph over the intimidating Cohen, when he turns away from the killing blow and leaves it for the boys in blue to take the scumbag away to face trial. The supremecy of Justice has been re-established and The City oF Angels will remain free of criminal domination.

So go see this Movie! It also has several unparralled Tommy Gun fights and proves that the Tommy Gun is the most cinematic fire arm available.

Oscar Party Proper

First blog so let’s go right to the glitzy heart of movies, of Tinsel Town, of Hollywood, of The Academy Awards with blazing red carpets and blinding star power.

Now, I’m not even a regular follower of the Oscar’s. As an Award, its habitually off the mark.  As performance, wildly uneven and often bogged down under its own hubris. Yet the Oscars remain the defacto Award of Awards. Next to perhaps the Nobel Prize, the Oscar has come to define our very concept of Award, the statue itself the defining awards statue. Like it or lump it, the Oscars is anchored in our collective mindset.

So I’ll be watching this year. In fact I’ll be dressing up and going down to the Rio Theatre’s free admission live feed presentation to watch it on the big screen. I don’t even know who’s nominated but that doesn’t matter, because they’ll let me know. I don’t care for the host but I’ll have a glass of campaign at the ready. It’s a long, glitzy, ceremonial ritual but that’s fine, I plan to schmooze and flirt my way through the doldrums.

It’s also a chance to be in a place with hundreds of other movie fans, to talk, debate and discuss with the casual drunkenness that lends itself so well to conversation.  I love movies. I came to Vancouver for the movie business. I’m going to watch the Oscar’s in one of this cities few remaining movie houses. I’m here making movies, may as well aim for an Oscar while I’m doing it.