The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) is a difficult film to evaluate. Like Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) or Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), the film contains more than the usual quota of stunning images and inspired sequences. However, like the films by Kubrick and Welles, Gilliam’s is a film that cannot escape the shadow of its production history. As most readers are no doubt aware, Parnassus stands as the last film featuring the talents of the late Heath Ledger. Yet, Ledger’s death occurred before the film was finished shooting and Gilliam was forced to shut down production to contemplate a means of constructing a film without one of his key personnel. Eventually, Gilliam settled on re-casting the part with Ledger’s friends (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) in his role over expensive CGI solutions. Unfortunately, while it was the most cost effective and arguably the most tasteful creative choice Gilliam could have made, the solution costs the film dearly.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

A week and a half ago, after serving nearly twenty years behind bars, Jessie Misskelley Jr., Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols – also known as the West Memphis Three (WM3) - were released from prison after entering Alford pleas (a plea which allows the defendants to assert their innocence while acknowledging  the existence of substantial evidence that could be used for a conviction) with the Arkansas court system.  The release of the trio was bittersweet.  On one hand, three men who appear to be innocent are free to walk to the street.  On the other hand, three innocent men were convicted because their interest in Stephen King and Metallica made them different from the bulk of the West Memphis population and they lost almost twenty years of their lives.  Most significantly, the killer or killers behind the murders of three, eight year old boys (Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers) have yet to be found. 

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

The always likable Paul Rudd hits theaters this weekend in Our Idiot Brother (2011) and, in homage, I decided to pop in one of my favorite Rudd comedies:  State member David Wain’s directorial debut Wet Hot American Summer (2001). The film, one of my favorite comedies, was what introduced me to the those cloudy bootlegs and cued my anticipation and interest in Reno 911! (2003-2009), Stella (2005), and the recent series Michael & Michael Have Issues (2009), the latter two series were short lived.  

The Iron Giant (1999)

It has been twelve years since of the release of Brad Bird’s animated feature The Iron Giant (1999). The film, as some of you may know, opened to rave critical reviews and won nine Annie Awards (the animation equivalent of the Academy Awards) yet floundered at the box office, earning only half of its $48 million dollar production budget. The poor box office performance of The Iron Giant, along with the failure of Osmosis Jones (2001) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), resulted in a scaling back and re-structuring of Warner Brothers Animation. Yet, one company’s loss was another’s gain as one admirer of the film, Bird’s former classmate and computer animation guru John Lasseter, hired Bird to work for Pixar.

The Way of the Gun (2000)

“There is a natural order. The way things are meant to be. An order that says that the good guys always win. That you die when it’s your time, or you have it coming. That the ending is always happy, if only for someone else. Now at some point it became clear to us that our path had been chosen and we had nothing to offer the world … So, we stepped off the path, and went looking for the fortune that we knew was looking for us. Once off the path you do what you can to eat and to keep moving.” — Mr. Parker in The Way of the Gun (2000)

Strange Days (1995)

Before The Hurt Locker (2009) won Best Director, it won my award for the most overrated film of the year. Don’t misunderstand, The Hurt Locker is far from a bad film, it’s actually quite suspenseful and well-crafted for an action film but it is not a groundbreaking or earth shattering piece of art. The characterization is weak (war is a drug…got it!), the dialogue has its share of bumps (just look at that exchange regarding the wedding ring, filed under devices that almost killed the protagonist), and the action is shot in wash-out, hand-held, 16mm with nearly as many cuts as a Michael Bay film. In other words, the action sequences, which have traditionally been one of director Kathryn Bigelow’s strong suits, are rather cliché with the noted exception of the grueling sniper duel.

Why have critics and the film community in general been so compelled to oversell a rather standard combat film? First, there seems to be a desire to finally be able to hold up a film dealing with the Iraq war as being relevant. Secondly and perhaps more significantly, Bigelow is one of the most prominent female directors working in Hollywood and perhaps there is a desire to shake up the status quo.  The issue of female presence behind the camera has become an area of increased attention during the past two years. In 2007, the American Film Institute updated their Top 100 Films and the absence of a film by a female director (one of my favorites, the oft-cited Meshes of the Afternoon by avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren was disqualified because it is not feature length) stirred much debate. This debate was further aggravated with the 2008 Academy Award nominations when Danny Boyle’s credited co-director Loveleen Tandan did not share the Best Director nomination with him (this also occurred in 2004 with City of God) for Slumdog Millionaire.

I’m not denying that both awards organizations and film canonization have left women by the wayside, which is a incredibly sad truth. Nor am I debating Bigelow’s talent, which she obviously possesses in spades. What I am attempting to argue is that if you want to find an example of Bigelow at her best, don’t look at The Hurt Locker … look at her extremely underappreciated film Strange Days (1995).

The PCA and Critical Reaction to The Big Combo (1955)

Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo (1955), one of my favorite film noirs, is now on Netflix Watch Instantly.  Between John Alton's cinematography, the homoerotic subtext, the graphic and creative depiction of torture (with a hearing aid!), and hardboiled dialogue, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Here are some notes I took during a research trip at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library from the Production Code Administration (PCA) file and the news clipping files for the film.  Note:  I was unable to import my footnotes.  For those interested, I can either e-mail the below text with footnotes or I can comment on the exact sources below.