The Dude Who Abides

    The Big Lebowski, labeled a cult classic, is a comedy crime film written and directed by the Coen Brothers team.

    The film centers around a character known as The Dude. The Dude doesn't do much. When police ask him what he does for a living he responds that he's currently unemployed. He mostly lays in the bath tub and gets high. And he goes bowling.

 Jeff Bridges' character, who gets confused with a businessman also named Lebowski, is given a desire. He wants to fix his rug. It's one little want. It's one little need. The Dude is mostly propelled through the movie by the plans and schemes from business men to nihilist. But the promise of the rug, the one that pulled the room together, that keeps The Dude moving. It's relatable. Viewers are lazy. We don't want to do things.

    I added The Big Lebowski to my lookbook for a few different reasons. Firstly I love Roger Deakins and think he creates beautiful images out of simple character placements. Secondly, The Dude doesn't do a whole lot. Rather, like Andrew, things are mostly done to him. And for whatever reason this tires him out. Even though he's along for the ride he hates the journey. 

     Plus the Dude learns from his surroundings. He repeats the things other characters say. And he the solution to his problems come in a drug laced dreamed sequence. Which is an effective form of visual storytelling.

The Big Lebowski is a cult classic because each time you watch it there's a new joke. The high stakes create a lot of tension and juxtaposition of the calmness that often follows. The Coen Brothers show us a dramatic money hand off that failed. They ostensibly cut from John Goodman jumping out of a moving car to Steve Buscemi bowling. The Dude's enemies include nihilists and Jesus the bowler. The movie sets up and deceives are expectations, the hallmark of comedy.

    The Big Lebowski is about a man just trying to get vengeance for his rug. He's The Dude.

It's Actually Pretty Groovy To Be Insane

      Inherent Vice is the first ever Thomas Pynchon novel to be adapted into a screenplay. The fact I have to say that is pertinent to the creation, outcome, and reaction to the movie. Thomas Pynchon is a modern literary giant. He is well respected, reclusive (as artist are portrayed), and has created a modern classic. Some call it The Modern Classic. Regardless, one of critics most loved filmmakers in Paul Thomas Anderson has taken on the great challenge of adapting one of critics most loved writers. He did so by writing the whole novel out as script and then cutting out what he felt was unnecessary.

     Inherent Vice, a movie based on the 2009 novel of the same title, is a drug-filled noir set in the 1970's. The main story follows "Doc" Sportello, played by Joaquin Phoenix, a private investigator and dirty hippie. The story is jumpstarted when Shasta Fay Hepworth, an ex lover of Doc's, comes into Doc's home with a hunch that the new hot shot real estate tycoon she's with, well his wife and her boyfriend are planning to send him to the loony bin. She thinks.

   

   













   
     Doc begins his journey and immediately bumps into characters such as a Black Guerilla Family member, a woman who thinks her husband may not be dead, and a prostitute Jade. Like a noir film Doc has a particular distaste for the formal police, particularly Josh Brolin's character nicknamed "Bigfoot."

     

     Detective Bjornsen is the antithesis of Phoenix's doping Doc and their unwillingness but need to work together to solve the case creates a lot of the tension and comedy in the film. 

     To try to summarize the rest of the plot would do a disservice to both the movie and Pynchon's style of writing. The movie is complex, surreal, and elaborate. All the characters relate and the solving of one mystery just leads to more questions. That is to say, it watches as a Pynchon novel would read. The cast is humongous and star studded, leaving me to look over several times to a friend throughout the film and remark "Oh my god I didn't know they were in this movie." 

    Critic review of the film has been inherently positive while audience left the theatre "confused." I too left confused and spent most of the remainder of the night trying to piece together the plot. I think the story would work better in it's original format, as a novel. That's not to say I didn't like the film. I really liked the film. The more I write about it the more I liked it. It's a flawless adaption of a Pynchon novel. Tonally the movie was perfect and, dare I say, groovily insane. 

    

     

Get a Clue

The other night in my apartment, my roommate and I realized that we had finished with our homework before midnight (quite the feat for the two of us). Since we had this unexpected free time, my roommate suggested we watch a little movie called Clue, my roommate's personal favorites. I didn't have super high expectations for the movie, especially since it was a movie based off of the popular board game that the movie was named after. The movie was directed by Jonathan Lynn and it stars a great cast with one of my personal favorites, Tim Curry. In the movie, six strangers are invited to a dinner party by a mysterious guest. Each of the characters, although strangers, share a common link that they are all being blackmailed by a mysterious person. To keep with their anonymity, each person is assigned a code name and that is where the viewer are "clued" into (pun intended) the idea that it is based off of the board game. This part of it was fun because I got to see the interpretation of each of the characters that I grew up playing as. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what the characters were like and I was quite satisfied by the movie adaptation of the characters. The characters and the actors that they chose just made me laugh! They were great, especially the butler, played by Curry. They were simply witty. Another different aspect of this movie was that it had 3 different endings. This played with the concept that the movie was based off of the game because in the game there could always be different endings. I thought that this was a clever feature of the movie that I had never seen before.

The movie was not the best by any means, but it did have some very memorable lines that cracked me up. I did some research on the movie after I watched it and I found out that Clue is also a cult classic movie. Even though it flopped in theaters when it was released, it is still very much present in pop and cult culture. It still has showings at midnight at select theaters around the country. I would definitely recommend watching this movie, especially if you just want a lighthearted little comedy. It's easy to watch and it's fun (quite the difference from Se7en, which I watched the day earlier). Great movie that'll leave you laughing.

Groovy.

I'm a deadite and I don't care who knows... Well, actually... Most people don't know what that means so um... Let me explain. Tonight I watched Evil Dead II and it doesn't matter how many times I've seen that movie, it will still be one of my favorites.

Evil Dead II is a reboot/sequel to The Evil Dead which stars Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi. This is a picture almost 30 years old but this is one of my favorites of the two best friends.

You may know Sam Raimi as the director of the upcoming movie, Oz staring James Franco. And hopefully (fingers crossed) you know Bruce Campbell from Hercules? Oh how about... Burn Notice? He's the guy that always wears the Hawaiian shirts. 

Okay, so Evil Dead II is when Ash (Bruce) and his girlfriend stay at an abandoned cabin for the weekend in the woods. He listens to a tape recorder there and he basically unleashes the evils from centuries of hibernation. So, zombie things attack and in the end Ash has to cut his hand off and attaches a chainsaw to the hand stub and save the day. It's pretty badass. (If you've ever seen The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, a guy with a chainsaw hand should seem familiar. Remember this guy?

That's Hoss Delgado. A reference to Kurt Russel's character from Escape From New York, Bruce Campbell's character from Evil Dead and his name is an ode to the comic book character Gangbuster.)

This movie series is a cult classic- literally, it's basically like a cult. Deadites live for these movies. My family and I use Bruce's brilliant one-liners in an everyday conversation. (We could be talking just about anything and if the conversation allows it, someone will just say, "Hail to the King, baby." like it made sense to the conversation.) There are horror conventions and when Bruce Campbell is there, you know it's the place to be. 

Now, a lot of us Deadites got really really really really really really really really really pissed off when they decided to remake the first movie. It looks terrifying as hell but I was so nervous as to whether I was going to see it out not. Luckily, my main man Bruce and Sam are producers on the movie and are fully behind the film. So thankfully, soon, I'll be able to be scared shitless for days on end after seeing the remake.

Oh Bruce. You worked so hard and did your own stunts so directors that weren't his best friend would hire him in action films. You are the #1 B-Movie Actor and always will be. Any man who defeats the Deadites in Army of Darkness and fights with his own hand will always on the top of my list.

Oh, also. The day before I came to campus from winter break, I tweeted a picture to Bruce Campbell stating that I was organizing all of my Army of Darkness Comics and not even a minute later, Bruce Campbell tweeted back. I squealed and ran down to my parents room and showed my half asleep mom and dad the best moment of my life.

 Bruce. I shall always have a crush on you for as long as we both shall live... Even though you are old enough to be my father, but that's besides the point.

This week in movies...

Friday: Tonight, I've just watched Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino. And I've got to say I was taken aback by it. And I'm not sure if in a good or a bad way.

In one aspect it was beautifully done and in Tarantino-fashion. Lots of blood, lots of "F" and "N" words but wonderfully showed the grittiness of what it means to do a "job".

Maybe it's due to the last few of his movies I've seen are his quote-on-quote best movies, that I built it up as going to be just another Pulp Fiction but with more mobsters.

Hopefully if I watch it again in a few weeks or so, I'll appreciate it more... Of course I enjoyed when Blonde cut the cops ear off- the pacing of it was so well done that my ear only hurt once I saw the ear in Blonde's hand.

And like always, the soundtrack was on point... And I loved Orange's references to Marvel... made my night.

Saturday: This afternoon my boyfriend and I saw Gangster Squad. He wasn't sure on whether we should see it or not since the website, Rotten Tomatoes, gave it a low score. I usually hate what most critics say about a movie so I finally beat the whole "But Emma Stone is in it!" to a pulp and we finally got to see it.

It wasn't that bad. Now, I enjoyed Josh Brolin bash peoples' faces in and Ryan Gosling in a fitted suit but it was a movie you have to see at least once. The story telling was sub-par but it was still a good gangster movie. Brolin's wife in the movie was one of my favorite characters and the fight scenes were always exciting. 

Don't spend your money on the movie while it's out in theaters- wait till it's either at your $2 theatre or until it's at RedBox. If you like Ryan Gosling and gun fights, might as well check it out.

Bowie.

As a few of you know, David Bowie is my favorite recording artist of all time. Not only do I appreciate his music, he is one of my greatest inspirations as an icon. In my junior year of high school, the year I also decided I wanted to go into the film and television industry, I was at the peak of my obsession with Bowie. My friends made me a Ziggy Stardust cake for my birthday, I dressed up as him for Halloween, contributed to his fan sites, had a fish named Ziggy, watched hundreds of youtube videos, and watched a few of the movies he has appeared in. Since I have been listening to him practically non-stop for the past two weeks, I felt the need to talk about him so I will discuss his appearances in movies and television. As you know from a previous post, David Bowie was in Labyrinth, a film that was directed by Jim Henson and released in 1986. Some of the other movies he has been in include The Prestige (2006), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), and The Hunger (1983). David Bowie also appeared in a television show years later with the same name in 1999.
The first time I saw him in The Prestige I barely recognized him at first! Before seeing the film somehow I had no idea that he was going to be in it. One of my friends had to say, "Hey Danielle, who is that?!" in order for me to come to the realization and scream at the top of my lungs because that is what happens when I see him unexpectedly.
For the others, however, I was expecting to see him when I watched The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Hunger. Sadly, The Man Who Fell to Earth took me awhile to get through. For some reason I kept getting interrupted while watching it so I had to pause it quite a bit, but also some of the time I actually had little idea what was going on because it was hard to follow. Since David Bowie was very fascinated with aliens and even adopted an alien persona, Ziggy Stardust in 1972, with his concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, he was asked to play this alien character called Thomas Jerome Newton who is an alien who has 'fallen to Earth' from his home planet Anthea, which is suffering from a draught. On Earth he takes the form of a human and becomes head of a large technology corporation. One scene that I remember I enjoyed in particular was the scene where Bowie's character, Thomas, is watching about 30 television sets at once as a way to soak up knowledge about the Earth. I would really like to watch this movie again and I am ashamed I have only seen it once. It is a cult classic and I am proud to say that I have one of the original promotional film posters.
In The Hunger, Miriam, a centuries-old vampire played by Catherine Deneuve, has converted her lover John, played by David Bowie, into a vampire. Unfortunately, John unexpectedly begins to age and waste away one day. Miriam tries to find the source of this problem since this has happened to her lovers before. Although David Bowie is mainly just in the first half of the movie, I found the movie quite enjoyable because of the performances of Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and its Neo-Gothic style.
Although I have only seen one episode from the series, the television show of the same name was completely different from the film. In the episode that I saw there were no vampires just David Bowie playing this genius artist, Julian Priest, who had gone crazy. I must say it was a very disturbing episode for me at the time when I watched it in high school.
David Bowie, I will admit, is not the greatest actor, but I do highly recommend his music.

from film, to stage, back to film, and back to stage

I'm going to go ahead and assume that some, most, or hopefully all of you have seen the movie Little Shop of Horrors. This is a great film directed by Frank Oz, who has a pretty outstanding resume. Some of you may know him as a puppeteer and voice actor for The Muppets, or the voice of Yoda in Star Wars. He does not have much of a directing background, but this hit movie has been deemed a 'cult classic,' which is good, I think. But, where did this all start?

Way back in 1960, a man named Roger Corman directed and produced a movie in only two days. For those of you keeping score at home, thats a 70 minute feature-length movie that was shot in 48 hours. This was the last two days before the set that was used was to be taken down, as in the previous 5 days, Corman had just filmed another feature-length movie called Bucket of Blood. Wait, what?! That's right, Corman shot TWO movies in ONE week. Mind you, these were very low-budget films, and not highly enjoyable by today's standards, however I still find this a great feat. So I guess to get his money's worth out of the set, he decided to film a second movie rather than let the set go to waste with its final two days. Somehow, they wrote a script and shot the entire film in these two days, and the result was a far-fetched, quirky, interesting, and entertaining film. It even features a very young Jack Nicholson in his third Hollywood role he had ever played.

Next, this odd little movie became far more popular than they ever anticipated it to be, and years later (1982), a man named Howard Ashman adapted and wrote it into an off-broadway musical. Again, this production became far more popular than anyone had ever imagined, and was quickly re-adapted to film in 1986. This is where Frank Oz picked it up and made it into the film everyone thinks of today when they hear of Little Shop. Oz's rendition kept the stage style of the musical by using a limited number of sets, and lengthy wide shots, which Oz refers to as "master shots". One of these shots includes a ginormous crane up while a character runs up a flight of stairs mid-song. Unhappy with the first 31 takes, the 32nd was finally used. Anyways, this film had quite a historic journey before it came to be what we know today. Also, with the success of Oz's movie, the stage musical was then picked up by Broadway.

I can't decide what part of that history that I find most fascinating, but it does put into perspective how one seemingly small production can become such a big phenomenon.

Guilty pleasures

One of my favorite movies of all time is also one of my guiltiest pleasures. Evil Dead 2 Starring Bruce Campbell, Directed by Sam Raimi, is a cult classic horror film with terrible acting and even worse special effects. its one of those movies that if you look close enough you can see the seams in the zombie costumes.
      I love this movie because it has everything  you would want from a Cheesy horror movie. The main character is a badass who half way through the movie brandishes a chainsaw for a hand along side his sawed off shot gun.

     Every thing I know about movies should make me hate it but I don't. I love this movie. I love everything about it.