Howl (2010)

I liked Howl because it reminds me of my creative writing class and writing in general because the first things I remember writing creatively was poetry. Admittedly, my stuff was never deemed revolutionary or obscene but I've always felt ahead of my time. Howl skips across the filmic styles- from re-inacted documentary to musical biopic to period piece to courtroom drama, in telling the true story of Allen Finsbury and his book Howl and how it was the centre of a court-case on obscenity charges. The film seems weightless as it flits from Ginsberg (methodically played by James Franco) reading Howl to Ginsberg discussing the time to the courtroom.
Maybe this constant mix of setting and style would make other films seem convoluted or confusing but it works in this case.
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, prolific gay documentary filmmakers seem to be to divine all the of this mixing and transform it into something literate despite not having worked a whole lot with actors. I'm not sure if working with actors after 20years in documentaries would be easier or harder!  but they managed to pull together this cast including Jon Hamm, David Strathaven and Jeff Daniel for the courtroom stuff as well as the Franco.
I guess I preferred the interview/documentry style stuff and would have preferred more of that and less of the courtroom stuff but the courtroom stuff gets cut away from before it becomes repetitive and I guess a little courtroom drama used sparingly goes a long way. It's interesting to watch because it takes you not into the mind of a poet but into the time of a society on the cusp of a significant change in popular culture; where the 50's Beat Generation where warming up for the Peace, Love and Understanding of the 60's...

I watched Howl (2010) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)...

Your Highness (2011)

The following piece will be even more gibbering and uneven than usual. Last week i was lucky enough to win tickets to see Your Highness but it was also going to be attended by its star and current comedy great Danny MacBride. I literally travelled hundreds of miles and 6hrs on a bus to go because i had to. The guy has not put a foot wrong in my book and even if the rest of a movie's crappy, he ain't. I think we were going to cock a snoot at MacBride, he does play the same sort of boisterous self-important cruel prick in all his roles but i like that guy. He's the epitome of shit-talking asshole, i wish i could get away with being. He hits a great cathartic sweet spot. But as excited as i was to see his take on a meta-swords and scorcery comedy, i had grave concerns. In fact, i can't remember when i last worried so much about a film's overall tone BEFORE i saw the film but i was concerned that they would really miss the groove of the current brat-comedy
(which i love) and the fantasy setting. I mean of course, a film with mythical creatures and swearing and pot smoking sounds like the ramblings of that stoned kid in school who made doodles in class and wore Anthrax t-shirts on wear-your-own-clothes days; i think even for someone who doesn't think about things like, it's a tough concept to hang your hat on... Is it spoof? will it make logical sense? It's neither fare nor foul.
I'm happy to report that MacBride and director David Gordon Green actually land it. The tact is basically we're going to play whatever crazy shit we've come up with as straight as possible. I really don't know who this film is aimed at apart from stoners (don't make a movie for stoners-one of them will watch it and the rest will just torrent the shit outta it...) but i think a good test to see of you'll find it funny would be whether the idea that James Franco could possibly be MacBride's older brother is funny to you. They mention it once and don't linger on it but that's kinda the level here. MacBride is great this, as is not-oft seen actor/currently hot screenwriter Jason Theraux as the baddie Lazar. And as much as i want to hate him for having the comedy acting life i always wanted- Rasmus Hardiker has paid many dues in tv comedies and really runs with the great opportunity he's been given.
He shows no fear in riffing with a team of seasoned improvisers. It's not wholly amazing or the funniest films I'll see this year but I was laughing consistently through out and it's quite ambitious to try to make something like this. I don't think it will be as popular as it should be; i'm certain the subject matter will put people off but i'm also sure it'll be a gradual hit on dvd.
And obviously, i was excited to drink in the presence of Danny MacBride (no homo) afterwards and he was great answering questions on Eastbound And Down and Pineapple Express and he brought Rasmus out with him, who seemed like a nice guy too. Prick.

I watched Your Highness (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Tomorrow When The War Began (2010)...

127Hours (2010)

Last August, i was lucky enough to hear Danny Boyle talk about 127 Hours.

I was at Empire Magazine's MovieCon, a delightful way to spend a weekend at the NFT in London. And before watching The Expendables, we heard from Danny Boyle talking about 127Hours (that seemed perfectly normal at the time). 
I've never been a massive fan of Danny Boyle's work- 28 Days Later, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting are brilliant but Sunshine, The Beach and Slumdog Millionaire were not for me. But I have the utmost respect for the ambition of the man- he wants to make all these films in different genres and listening to the man talk really made me respect this. He took all the power he'd developed in Hollywood with Slumdog and made 127 Hours. It would be the challenge of his career, I mean- could he make a movie-movie about the true story of a dude trapped in a cavern...


Man. 127Hours. I need a moment. Danny Boyle's best film. My advice to Danny Boyle-quit. Yazz lied- the only way is down after this. It's like he took everything he learnt through his career and made what could have been a harrowing struggle-for-survival story and made an exciting, *writ large and sparkly* VISCERAL affirmation for life and living. 
The trick was always going to be, how do you make 90mins in a cave interesting and cinematic? Last year, we had Buried - which is also about being isolated and figuring how to save yourself. The makers of Buried, raised the stakes and said- 'And we won't leave the box either' and for all intents and purposes (favouring a Hitchcockian jawn), I'd class Buried as a success too. But it's no 127 Hours. 
Boyle has no qualms about leaving the cavern for our hero Aron (James Franco) to flashback or dream or hallucinate. It's a weird thought but I'm certain this cavern movie which is 90% concentrated on one guy is too big for TV at home. 127 Hours is too cinematic- maybe it has to do with being trapped in the dark with Aron too but 127 Hours just an incredible visual event (pardon my hyperbole but it is. It's a truly a 'ride'... Shit. Sorry.). There's different camera styles being employed, from 35mm to hi8 to camera phone; one minute you seeing sumptuous vista of the American Outback, the next you're in a clastrophobic cavern... like. It's a jarring movie (you will be jarred-there will be jarring) but it won't be shaky-cam visuals. The jarring element (perhaps predictably) is the story and Franco is mind-blowing here. I came a Franco fan, I left a Francophile ('Really, Cody.') He shines in the role of a lifetime for any actor-like I said it's 90% concentrated on one guy ('LOLZ'). James Franco's Aron is not a maudlin character, in fact, for a man stuck in a cavern-he's almost too cheery but we love that he's so proactive in his own survival- maybe because we can't guarantee we'd be so inventive if we were in the same hiking trainers...
But some how in the end you forget about all this 'Stuck in a canyon' business- the film becomes this super powerful coda to not being alone and embracing your life and sharing it with other people. Okay, when I put it like that it sounds sappy and sentimental but remember this was the film, where your main concern was going to be about how gruesome the arm bludgeoning was going to be.
See- me and A.O. Scott of The New York Times aren't so different...
Oh and Danny Boyle... if you do want to make more films... um, I'd be cool with that.


I watched 127 Hours at the cinema, another great resource for movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cul-De-Sac (1966)...