The House Next Door

Archive: August, 2008

Aural/Visual Bullying: Traitor—Take 2

by on August 26th, 2008 at 9:03 pm in Film

By Steven Boone

[Traitor opens today in wide release.]

When I look at a film, as an individual viewer with my own distinct DNA, biochemical profile, ocular deficiencies, brain damage, life experiences, needs, wants, peeves, and perversions, I don't necessarily see what you see. But there is something called a "communal experience." I remember looking over at a row of 40 or more people staring up at the Valkyrie helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now. Every face wore the same expression. I remember the gasps and applause that erupted in the packed house at Symphony Space when a deranged kidnapper fell to Takashi Shimura's sword in slo-mo in The Seven Samurai. I remember the cloud of compassionate despair that suffocated me and others when young Igor struggled to look after dead Amadou's wife and baby in La Promesse. We were in this together. And I can recall, just the other day, a room full of men going "Woooo shit!" when Sergio Leone panned up a monumental tangle of leather chaps and duster jacket to the roguish, angelic face of Woody Strode at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in The West. Continue Reading »




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Jihad for Dummies: Traitor—Take 1

by on August 26th, 2008 at 9:02 pm in Film

[Traitor opens today in wide release.]

Traitor, an international espionage thriller written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (better known as the guy who wrote the global warming thriller The Day After Tomorrow), pits Guy Pearce's southern Baptist FBI man Roy Clayton against Don Cheadle's devout Muslim, maybe renegade, former U.S. soldier Samir Horn in a cat and mouse game across several continents and 17 cities. The movie is loaded with misguided Muslims and Americans alike, all of them just trying to do the right thing and slaughtering innocents in the process, so it comes as no surprise that several of the crew (including DP J. Michael Muro) and Cheadle himself were involved in the faux-deep car wreck that was Crash. For the Traitor script is as jam-packed with simpleminded and heavy-handed exposition-posing-as-profound-thought as it is with suicide bombings and hand-to-hand combat action—all of it so painful to listen to and observe that I wanted to blow myself up during the first half. And I don't even like virgins. Continue Reading »




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Links for the Day (August 27th, 2008)

by on August 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pm in Links for the Day

1. A shout-out to our friends at Benten Films whose latest release, Kentucker Audley's Team Picture, streeted yesterday. Click the link above for more information on the DVD. Click here for an interview with Audley at GreenCine, conducted by our own Vadim Rizov.

["AUDLEY (from GreenCine interview): I definitely don't feel anything very smooth about doing things as far as people in Memphis understand how films go down. People don't take this shit seriously because it's done so casually. Coming from the perspective of Hollywood films or student films which are taught in school, it doesn't feel real if you're not taking five hours to get a shot, it doesn't feel like it's hard work enough. I think film students are Hollywood-type people - you know, they worked 14 hours to set up a shot. And that's fine. I'm just sort of turned-off about how some people can become so self-righteous about that approach. I don't think nothing happens in Team Picture, and I think the humor probably helps people who aren't really on board. I don't think people get it for the most part as far as the general spirit. I absolutely expect that, and I don't expect people to go crazy over the movie, but I guess the idea is that it's not trying to convince you of how smart or witty it is. I think once people see it has some attention outside of Memphis, they start to understand that maybe there's something to it."] Continue Reading »




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"Music Video Round-Up": Lil Wayne & Kanye West

by on August 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm in Music

By Brandon Soderberg

'Got Money' directed by Gil Green (2008)

"Got Money" is the big, dumb pop-rap song of Lil Wayne's two-million sold Tha Carter III because it's got buzzing synths, R & B crooner (and maybe the second weirdest dude in pop-rap now) T-Pain on the hook, and it's loud and about making lots of money. The video, directed by Gil Green and undoubtedly conceptualized by Wayne himself, is not about making lots of money for one's self, but a kind of anti-capitalist, Robin Hood of "the hood" redistribution of wealth, contextualized in an awkward but effective prologue about the continued economic fallout for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Continue Reading »




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Links for the Day (August 26th, 2008)

by on August 25th, 2008 at 9:01 pm in Links for the Day

1. A real treasure: an online scan of Donald Phelps' ninth issue (dated 1965) of "For Now," a 103 page tribute to and collection of the work of Manny Farber. Via Girish Shambu, who offers a heartfelt in memoriam.

["If I might wax personal for a second, Farber happened to provide a turning point for this blog. A little over two years ago, I did a post on termite art and white elephant art. In the process of writing it and in discussing Farber in the comments with others, primarily Zach, I discovered that my film-blogging interests lay not simply in films but in discourse about films: reading, writing, talking about them. For occasioning this turn in the road for the blog, among many other reasons, I'm grateful to Farber and his essay."] Continue Reading »




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Palin Drone

by on August 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pm in Politics

Palin Drone

Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed John McCain's stroke face during his brief press conference yesterday afternoon in which he announced the inexplicable but temporary suspension of his campaign. I don't think one's age (or skin color or lack of a penis, for that matter) impedes him or her from doing the job of President—in fact, those traits could be viewed as strengths in the 21st century. It's McCain's health, and the fact that the person he chose as his proxy should anything happen to him is completely unqualified—intellectually, principally and otherwise—that is most frightening. This fact is confirmed further each and every time that person, Sarah Palin, opens her mouth and let's out a drone of rehearsed soundbites or an incomprehensible string of improvisations, the latest examples of which can be found in droves in her interview with Katie Couric, which concluded tonight on CBS.

When asked about ties between McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and lobbying firm Freddie Mac, Palin said, "My understanding is Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings in that firm." When pressed, she paused like a broken robot or a telemarketer who's been thrown off her script. She wracked her brain (for what? An answer aside from the ones she was spoon-fed by the campaign? An alternate version of the talking points she was instructed to memorize? Perhaps the reasons she agreed to be McCain's VP pick in the first place?) and then slowly regurgitated the exact same answer, right down to the verb "recuse." Continue Reading »




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Celebrity Skin: The Black List: Volume 1

by on August 25th, 2008 at 11:40 am in Television

By Steven Boone

On paper, HBO's The Black List: Volume 1 fairly screams Black History Month: Twenty-two African-American superachievers speak about their lives and times; cue gospel choir and martial trumpets. Luckily, the canned epiphanies never come. The documentary's format is refreshingly simple: Luminaries face the camera and tell their tales as if addressing a single friendly acquaintance (you, the viewer) rather than a sea of black ties at an NAACP fund-raiser.
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To read the rest of the article at Time Out New York, click here.




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Mad Men Mondays: Season 2, Episode 5, "The New Girl"

by on August 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pm in Television

By Andrew Johnston


I was almost a little disappointed when a literal new girl showed up halfway through "The New Girl", as I was having so much fun decoding the ways the title applied to Peggy, Joan, and the visitig Bobbie Barrett (surely one of the sceries' most fascinating-ever characters). It's yet another entry in a very strong run of episodes and one which, in tandem with next week's installment (don't worry, you'll find no spoilers for it here) provides more in the way of semiconventional character development than the series has in quite awhile. Continue Reading »




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Generation Kill Mondays: Episode 7, "Bomb in the Garden"—Take 2

by on August 24th, 2008 at 9:03 pm in Television

By Jeremiah Kipp

So now it's all over, and I suppose there's some relief in wrapping up a series I thought wasn't particularly great, for reasons I attempted to outline in each recap. The same week I finished Generation Kill, I also completed viewing Season Five of The Wire. To compare the two shows would be unfair, because The Wire had many years on Generation Kill, and you had more of an opportunity to get to know the various cops, drug dealers, politicians, dock workers, addicts, and survivors. It grew from being a really solid cop show into a vast panorama of urban corruption and decay. Generation Kill, despite its epic tale of the first weeks of a war that has gone on to become a seemingly never-ending nightmare, is actually a smaller story, much of it taking place inside the camps and vehicles of a traveling group of marines, many of whom we never get to know. Continue Reading »




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Generation Kill Mondays: Episode 7, "Bomb in the Garden"—Take 1

by on August 24th, 2008 at 9:02 pm in Television

By Keith Uhlich

"Jesus Christ, that's a lotta city," observes Sgt. Brad Colbert (Alexander Skarsgård) at the start of Generation Kill's final episode (entitled "Bomb in the Garden"). The Baghdad skyline stretches before them and Cpl. Josh Ray Person (James Ransone) marks the moment (and the territory) by writing "USA" with his piss. But the sense of momentousness is put-upon and manufactured, destined to be short-lived.

The arrival of First Recon in Baghdad is one of the great anti-climaxes—by now, the ineptitude of the Battalion leaders is accepted as old hat, so when they proceed to screw up the restoration of law and order among an increasingly prickly populace, it's greeted with a sigh, a shrug, or, in the case of Lt. Nathaniel Fick (Stark Sands), a long, sad stare off into the distance.
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To read the rest of the review at UnderGroundOnline (UGO), click here.




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Links for the Day (August 25th, 2008)

by on August 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm in Links for the Day

1. "Daniel Radcliffe Farts Sunshine": Ah, Gawker, how I love thee...

["Daniel Radcliffe, our avian-mugged Harry Potter of the cinema, is, as I'm sure you're all painfully and tinglingly aware, making his Broadway debut very soon in the 1970's sex play Equus. He's supposed to be fantastically brilliant in the show, and smart as a whip both on and off the stage. But, yes, most importantly he is naked in the play and gets his jibblies whilst astride a mighty steed (or mare, who the hell knows). And, evidently, he farts sunshine. You know, if this Annie Leibovitz portrait of the actor and his costar, Richard Griffiths, is any indication."] Continue Reading »




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John McCain: The Real House Bunny

by on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm in Politics

John McCain: The Real House Bunny

In a rational world, John McCain's bid for the White House would have come crashing down this week like the housing market. When the presumptive Republican nominee was asked by a reporter on Wednesday how many houses he and his wife Cindy own, he answered: "I think, uh, I'll have my staff get to ya," after which he babbled something in his usual, endearingly conversational tone about condominiums—you know, those quaint little things with price tags that often run into the millions but apparently don't really count as actual "houses." McCain is liable to defer to his staff when asked about anything that can't be answered with the words "victory," "terrorists" or "my friends." Politico.com claims the McCains own at least eight properties (the Barack Obama camp is slightly more conservative, citing seven in their new ad), but the number of houses/condominiums/properties/outhouses McCain (or his family) owns is the least of his problems. His lack of awareness of their existence and/or his reluctance to disclose the truth coupled with the timing of the gaffe—in the midst of a brutal mortgage crisis that has put three-quarters of a million homeowners in foreclosure in the second quarter of 2008 alone—is more troubling.

No one—not McCain, not Obama, not John Kerry—should be faulted for making good or marrying into it, but McCain's accusations that Obama is an "elitist" and "out of touch" point to an indefensible hypocrisy that, in turn, points to a flaw in both character and, more essentially, Republican campaign tactics. The question has been posed before but it bears repeating: How have Republicans managed to convince the working class, whose interests lie with Democrats on a majority of vital issues that affect them daily, to vote for them in election cycle after election cycle? By trumpeting wedge and values issues, for sure—the ones Obama duly identified when he spoke about Americans clinging to guns and religion (read, once and for all, damn it: voting on issues like guns and religion because they believe neither party can truly make a difference when it comes to their realization of the American Dream)—but also by effectively, ruthlessly and cunningly defining Democrats as too "liberal," "elite" and "out of touch." Continue Reading »




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2000+: Rules Remain the Same, Except Some Changes

by on August 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 am in The House

I missed our 2000th post exactly (this is #2002), but still wanted to mark the moment. Jason Statham helps us celebrate, and points the way to 3... thousand! (See you there.)

Jason Statham




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Links for the Day (August 23rd & 24th, 2008)

by on August 22nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm in Links for the Day

1. A pre-bedtime wrap-up of the Obama VP announcement: CNN; MSNBC; CBS; FOX; ABC; NYTIMES; WSJ. (Recent as of 11:30 PM, 8/22/08.)

["CNN: Sen. Barack Obama's choice for running mate will be announced to supporters in a text message Saturday morning, senior Obama campaign officials told CNN on Friday night, and a senior party official said it won't be Sen. Hillary Clinton.

MSNBC: Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine have been told by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign they will not be his vice presidential choice, NBC News reported on Friday, quoting sources. The Associated Press also reported that a Democratic official close to Kaine said the Virginia governor told associates of Obama's decision on Friday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to discuss the development, the AP report said. Speculation about Obama's choice has centered on Bayh, Kaine and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden. Other names in the mix include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.

CBS: On a day and night of political suspense, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden emerged as a leading contender Friday to become Barack Obama's vice presidential pick as two running mate rivals learned they had been eliminated. Virginia Gov. Tom Kaine spread word he had been ruled out and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana was told he was not Obama's choice, according to party officials. The normally loquacious Biden maintained a low profile as associates said they believed - but did not know - that he would be tapped. They added they had been asked to stand by in case their help was needed. Additionally, several associates of Obama - including some at his campaign headquarters in Chicago - said they believed Biden was the choice, though they cautioned they had not been told directly. Compounding the mystery, conservative Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas emerged - however briefly - as a contender.

FOX: Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana are out. Could Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware be in? Sources told FOX News that Kaine had been informed he was out of the running for Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, and the Associated Press cited a source who said Bayh had been informed of the same. As for Biden's position as the leading contender, the truth might not be told until Saturday afternoon. Obama plans to notify the country of his vice presidential pick Saturday—possibly sometime in the morning—before the candidate and his chosen appear at a 2 p.m. campaign event in Illinois, FOX News learned Friday night."] Continue Reading »




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Landmark Parable: Macario

by on August 21st, 2008 at 9:02 pm in Film

[Macario screens as part of "Wounded Pride, Simmering Passion," a Film Society of Lincoln Center retrospective of the films of Mexican filmmaker Roberto Gavaldón. Click here for screening information.]

Macario is a landmark in Mexican cinema; Lincoln Center says so, and so do I. From my limited vantage point on Mexican film, Macario isn't the all-time champ—that'd be Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's 1976 Matinee, a sorely underrated children's adventure/bank-robber action comedy—but it's got a flavor I've never quite encountered, from that country or otherwise. Whether or not it's the highlight of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Roberto Gavaldón retro is a question I can't settle (it's the only film I managed to catch in advance), but it's certainly a missing piece of the puzzle. Continue Reading »




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