Author Topic: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies  (Read 12258 times)

tjwells

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #30 on: July 07, 2012, 02:07:31 AM »
oldkid will be watching:

« Last Edit: July 07, 2012, 02:09:08 AM by tjwells »

1SO

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #31 on: July 09, 2012, 12:42:39 AM »
Wet Hot American Summer
* *

I was a big fan of "The State", so 10 years ago when Wet Hot American Summer arrived on DVD I was excited to watch it. It was a miserable experience. Poorly acted, terribly written, about as sloppy an excuse for a film as I had ever seen. I stopped it about halfway through, really bummed out. Since then I somewhat enjoyed The Ten, really liked Role Models and was a big fan of "Stella". Role Models is David Wain's most focused and accomplished work, but Stella runs closest to WHAS. Each episode is like an extended SNL video short, full of absurdism and random acts of comedy. The humor works for me because each episode has a focal point. The satire becomes the basis for everything that spins out from it.

Wet Hot American Summer only has a location. A time and a place and that's it. The comedy hangs from this flimsy clothesline and if it doesn't stay on, oh well. I had a better experience this time because I could more easily spot that typical Stella humor, but I don't understand why this is the project that has such a cult following when it's the sloppiest piece of comedic filmmaking since Caddyshack. (Actually, I may have just answered my own question.)

The acting is around the same level as the supporting cast for Mamma Mia, which is below the level of a typical SNL sketch. Take Paul Rudd for example, because he perfectly defines the experience of watching this film. He's never given a worse performance on camera. It's a broad parody of a stereotype. All behavior and affectation and no actual character. Did I laugh? Well yes, sometimes I did. Was I embarrassed for him? Yes, I felt that too. Could he have been better if he simply played a character and made the comedy play through that? Decades of film history make me believe that is true.

I liked some of the music and there are the absurd moments of comedy that comes from I don't know where, like the chase set to Loverboy and the lounge lizard that emcees the kid's summer camp talent show. Then there are moments like the counselors all driving into town and shooting heroin. It's so so so far out of character that it isn't even absurdly funny, just weird and fake and kind of off-putting. But now I'm commenting on what makes me laugh, which is impossible to base a persuasive argument on. When David Hyde Pierce wins an award and hands it off camera so he can hug Garofalo even though there's nobody to hand it too, I laughed. Someone else could say that was the worst moment and the heroin house was the biggest laugh.

This is a poorly made movie, the worst by David Wain, that scores some laughs simply by law of averages and an abundance of comedians trying extra hard to spin crap into gold. It was made by talented people who thought using coarse language and lighting farts is funny all by itself.

roujin

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #32 on: July 09, 2012, 06:22:43 AM »

tjwells

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #33 on: July 09, 2012, 06:54:57 PM »
Summer of '42 (Robert Mulligan, 1971)
C

http://nursingshorelines.com/2012/07/09/summer-of-42-robert-mulligan-1971/



I’ve never found my opinion of a film shifting so frequently as I did during Robert Mulligan’s coming-of-age classic Summer of ’42. After about forty-five minutes, I was seriously considering turning it off. However, during the subsequent hour or so, I found the film somehow slowly drawing me in. I’m not sure if it was the gorgeous cinematography, Michel Legrand’s legendary score, or just a wave of nostalgia for a childhood that I never had, but the film ended up almost winning me over by the end.

The story follows Hermie and his two friends, Oscy and Benjie (mainly Benjie), who spend every summer on idyllic Nantucket island. During the aforementioned summer of ’42, the boys experience a range of shifting emotions and their first sexual experiences, ranging from a young, sexually adventurous girl their own age to an older army wife living on the island.

I was really ready to write-up a scathing review of the film. The first 45 minutes moves painfully slow, not doing much more than introducing three boys as nothing more than three shitty kids who spend their summers doing nothing laying around and making crass jokes about women. Then I realized that me and my friends did pretty much the same thing when we were that age. The crappy acting by the boys (sort of understandable due to the fact that they were all plucked as unknowns, and I actually found it to get better as it went on; I’d be curious to hear whether or not this was shot in order)) actually serves to the naïveté of their characters, which makes it all the more powerful when they grow up later in the film.

The film does have one great performance, though, and I’m disappointed that her part actually doesn’t add up to much more than 30 minutes or so of screen time, if that. Jennifer O’Neill, who readers of this blog would probably recognize most as Kim from Scanners, turns in a heartbreakingly tender and mature performance, the perfect stark contrast to the immaturity of Hermie and his friends. Despite his awkwardness, she’s always tender with him, right up to the sad, tender moment that serves as the climax of the film. She brings a soul and life to a movie that actually seems to live more by its beautiful cinematography and score than it does by the film itself.

In the end, I think Summer of ’42 still stands as a bit overrated. It’s got its moments; the extended sequence of Hermie attempting to purchase condoms in a tiny drug store is particularly amusing. But if you’re in the mood for a little childhood nostalgia, I’d go The Sandlot or Stand by Me route before hitting this overall dreary little picture.

Antares

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #34 on: July 10, 2012, 11:26:42 AM »
Rear Window (1954) 4/5 - I avoided this film for the longest time because I've never been a fan of the hoity-toity warbling of Grace Kelly when she speaks, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. But I think I've finally found a film she's actually quite good in. In fact, taking away Thelma Ritter's scene stealing proficiency, Kelly could be the best part of this story. I didn't quite see the chemistry between her and Stewart, but she just radiates like a nuclear reactor every moment she is onscreen. Now to the film itself...I liked it, but I don't consider it a masterpiece, as it tended to lollygag at times. Where the film shines is when it focuses on the voyeurism which is pretty much inherent in all of us. So much has been written about this film, that I'm not going to go any further. But I do want to mention one scene that I thought was quite subtle and quite brilliant. In the beginning of the film, Jeff is going out of his way to try to talk himself out of becoming serious with Lisa. He sees themselves as polar opposites, and that she could never conform to his adventurous, hand to mouth lifestyle. But when Lisa returns from Thorwald's apartment after delivering a note questioning the whereabouts of Thorwald's wife, and she is all agog at the adrenaline rush she is experiencing after almost being caught, Hitchcock does a quick shot of Jeff smiling in heavenly bliss. The shot only lasts for about two seconds, but at that moment, the viewer, as well as Jeff, know that she is the perfect soul mate for him. For me, that was the best part of the film, but if you blinked, you missed it.
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Sandy

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #35 on: July 10, 2012, 02:44:04 PM »
But when Lisa returns from Thorwald's apartment after delivering a note questioning the whereabouts of Thorwald's wife, and she is all agog at the adrenaline rush she is experiencing after almost being caught, Hitchcock does a quick shot of Jeff smiling in heavenly bliss. The shot only lasts for about two seconds, but at that moment, the viewer, as well as Jeff, know that she is the perfect soul mate for him. For me, that was the best part of the film, but if you blinked, you missed it.

Great insight Antares. Ain't it the truth :)

oldkid

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #36 on: July 10, 2012, 04:29:22 PM »
Wonderful, Antares, I'm so glad you liked it.  I'm not the biggest Hitchcock fan, but I do feel that Rear Window is an almost perfect film.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Jared

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #37 on: July 13, 2012, 06:13:13 PM »
Life is Sweet

I went through maybe a dozen Leigh films last year, enough to become really familiar with his work. Somehow this one wasn't on the radar however and I never saw it.

Leigh uses a lot of his regulars, and he uses them pretty well. We get Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, David Thwelis and more. The best performance, however, comes from Alison Steadman, who gives us a character as great as the one from Abigail's Party.

The story is basically that of a couple (Steadman and Broadbent) in a good marriage. They have two daughters, one who is particularly troubled (Nicola, played by Jane Horrocks). One thing I love about Leigh is his impressive ability to create these really interesting characters...whether they are the ones with a big showy role or not. It is really cool how much I want to watch Broadbent even when the Horrocks character is providing a lot of the story's arc (I felt the same way with Broadbent and Manville in Another Year)

We spend time seeing the workings of this family in what seems to be a slice of life. Friends jump in and out of the story, most notably Timothy Spall playing Aubrey. Aubrey is starting a restaurant, which turns out to be a pretty sad and yet amusing subplot.

I think Leigh is at his absolute best with this type of thing...a small ensemble of a half dozen or in a series of terrific dramatic scenes. Really liked this...thanks for the dictation.

smirnoff

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #38 on: July 13, 2012, 06:18:23 PM »
That definitely the most zany Leigh film I've seen, or rather the zaniest characters in a Leigh envrionment. It works though doesn't it. :)

1SO

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Re: July 2012 MDC: Summer Movies
« Reply #39 on: July 13, 2012, 06:31:10 PM »
I went through maybe a dozen Leigh films last year, enough to become really familiar with his work. Somehow this one wasn't on the radar however and I never saw it.

Have you seen Abigail’s Party or his short A Sense of History? They're both obscure but excellent.