Drinkin' the blood of lamb from Bandy's tract

Joel McCrea is dope in Sullivan’s Travels. I don’t know him very well otherwise, but can illegitimately agree that he deserves more recognition. You guys would know better than I would and I trust your judgment. I seriously envy your projects to excavate films from the 30s, 40s, 50s and so on. If I’m ever done with school, I should try to do something similar. If you couldn’t already tell, my classics knowledge is pretty much limited to popular or acclaimed titles. I’ve got to branch out and see more movies. I know I’m missing out.

Joseph Cotten DOES hold the fort down in the Magnificent Ambersons. Damn straight Brandon. Glad to hear that touring is going all right. I just saw a facebook status from you that said you were sick. I hope you feel better! Love you man.

Also, I’ve really got to watch Deadwood. It’s on my list of shows to watch. I’m currently involved in Breaking Bad season 3 and somewhere in Six Feet Under. Eventually I’ll get to Deadwood though. I’ve heard nothing but great things, especially about Timothy Olyphant, as you suggest.

I don’t know who else I would consider underrated as an actor. I’ll have to think about this more.

Ben - I’m excited to hear your thoughts on Never Let Me Go. I’m also surprised it has received such little attention.



This may be the dumbest thing ever....you can call me out on it too if you’d like...but I’d like to live up to my blog’s title and embrace my stupidity.

All right, I’ve been trying to ready my top 10 films of the 2000s to post, so I’ve been thinking about my favorite movies of the last decade. Of course, what I think is my favorite and what I think is the best movie of the last decade is There Will Be Blood. I’ve also been thinking about classics that I should add to my favorites list, so I thought of The Night of the Hunter. Anyway, combine these two threads of thought and we have a synthesis: I’ve been thinking about There Will Be Blood in relation to The Night of the Hunter.

Both films deal with the issue of religious hypocrisy or the false prophet. Compare Eli Sunday to Harry Powell. Obviously, Eli is not a serial killer, but he is a false prophet, a wolf in sheep's clothing just like Harry Powell. In TNOTH, Harry Powell is undone by the powerful force that is Rachel Cooper. She’s basically a benevolent force–a shepherd defending her flock from the sheep-clothed Powell. She sees what he really is though–a wolf–and holds her ground against him. In TWBB, Eli Sunday is also undone by a powerful force–Daniel Plainview. He, a wolf himself, sees through Eli’s sheep veneer to discover another wolf. And he makes it his life’s work to destroy him.

We see what happens to Eli Sunday when he meets the wolf that is Daniel Plainview. So, what do you think would happen if Daniel Plainview met Harry Powell? Certainly he’d see a fellow wolf, but would he try to destroy him? I don’t know. All I know is we have got a great movie on our hands. Move over Freddy vs Jason and Alien vs Predator because there’s a new battle in town. I’m thinking There Will Be Blood 2: Lean on This, Harry! And the sequel to that can be called PVP: Fuck it Harry, Let’s Go Bowling.

I’ll contact Paul Thomas Anderson immediately.

Joseph Cotten is cool

The more I think about it, Shadow of a Doubt may be my favorite Hitchcock film. Not only is it flawlessly directed by Mr. Hitchcock, but I think it is also one of his best written films. So many great scenes and characters from the awkward, crime novel enthusiast Herb to the precocious bookworm Anne–it’s really enjoyable to watch. AND Joseph Cotten as Uncle Charlie...just awesome. So equally charming and creepy.
I forgot to add this as one of my favorites, but I’ll just say now that it is. I don’t know why, but I do tend to forgot about how much I love this when thinking of Hitchcock. Maybe it’s because Vertigo, Notorious, Rear Window, or North by Northwest come to mind faster due to their stature (and bigger stars). But Shadow of a Doubt deserves just as much love too. I’ve got to remember that.

The reason I’ve got Shadow of a Doubt on my mind is because I recently re-watched The Third Man and remembered how much I love Joseph Cotten. He's damn cool and underrated. A terrific actor. Speaking of The Third Man though, I hadn’t seen it in many years, but boy is it worth seeing again. I won’t divulge into its merits (I’m sure you are all well aware of them), but I’ll just say that it gets better with subsequent viewings. I found it to be especially great having read some novels by the wonderful Graham Greene. There are many parallels between this and some of his other works, in particular The Quiet American. Both share similar moral dilemmas and concern a writer/journalist getting caught up in some dirty business. Anyway, I love Graham Greene and this movie. The last shot is one of the best in film history.

More Favorites

I wanted to add to my favorites list because looking back on it, it is woefully inadequate. I basically took an Amazon list of my favorite movies that I did a few years back and copied a few of them down. I didn’t put any doubles of directors down because I wanted a well-rounded mix. If I had allowed doubles I probably would have put every Kubrick film down, every Malick, every Kiewslowski, etc. So here’s my attempt to make my list more adequate. It still will be missing many, but I will slowly try to add to it. Again, I’m going to add the directors and years, even though I know you guys know, just to make it official and respectful.

-Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942) - Don’t know how this didn’t get added on the first one. Still one of the most romantic and magical films of all time. I remember watching this with an ex-girlfriend, who I really cared about, and it being a sublime experience. One of the great moments of my life, straight up.
-2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) - There was a time when if you asked me my favorite film of all time, I would have named this. But then my heart unthawed and Wild Strawberries became my favorite. This is still one of my absolute favorites, top 10 of all time at the very least, even though I rank Barry Lyndon just slightly above it. I don’t even need to go into its merits. Also, it goes without saying, I would put every Kubrick film on here. Treasures, all of them.
-The Three Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red (Kieslowski, 1993, 1994, 1994) - The Decalogue slightly edged in over this on my first list, but this is still one of my favorite collections of films of all time. Kieslowski was a genius, a master, and one of the greatest film artists of all time. I also love The Double Life of Veronique. It’s a shame that he passed away before we could get his Heaven/Hell/Purgatory trilogy (sorry Tom Tywker, your version of Heaven is just not the same).
-The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957 - Bergman was the greatest, nothing more needs to be said.
-The Virgin Spring (Bergman, 1960) - Same.
-Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954) - Don’t care if it’s cliche to love this. This and 8 1/2 were the first foreign classics I ever saw. They changed my life.
-8 1/2 (Fellini, 1963) - Same as above.
-The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948) - LOVE John Huston.
-The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Bunuel, 1972) - Hilarious. Huge Bunuel fan. Just watched The Exterminating Angel last summer and loved it. I’ve loved every film I’ve seen of his.
-Dont Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967) - I'm obsessed with Bob Dylan.
-Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
-Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
-Horse Feathers (McLeod, 1932)
-Stalag 17 (Wilder, 1953) - Apparently, Bill Murray is a big fan of this, which makes me overjoyed because I love this and Bill Murray.
-Midnight Cowboy - (Schlesinger, 1969) - This one is all about Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo. One of my favorite actors along with Paul Newman.
-Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972) - One of my favorite film endings.
-The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973) - I’m entirely serious with this pick. Forget all the bullshit hype about this being the scariest thing ever or its plethora of stigmas, and just watch it for what it is. I love it. I miss 70s horror.
-My Left Foot (Sheridan, 1989)
-Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam/Jones, 1975)
-Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989)
-Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990)
-Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993) - I watch this at least twice a year.
-Europa (von Trier, 1991)
-The City of Lost Children (Jeunet/Caro, 1995)
-Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996)
-Fargo (Coens, 1996)
-Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
-The Thin Red Line (Malick, 1998) - Add Badlands and The New World too.
-You Can Count on Me (Lonergan, 2000)
-Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
-The Fountain (Aronofsky, 2006)
-There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007)
-No Country for Old Men (Coens, 2007)
-Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman, 2008)

I tried to add a few modern favorites this time. There are a lot missing. Forgive me.

Also, I'm an enormous fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But that almost doesn't need to be said. They're awesome, we all know.

To be continued....

Have fun Brandon!

Brandon - Best of luck on the tour! I'm sure it will be a blast. Give my love to the rest of the band, especially Alex. Tell him he's the greatest, from me. Having listened to your new album (which is AWESOME) and watched you guys perform, you are definitely not wasting your time. It's a gift to be able to hear your music and see you guys play. No lie. Keep it up! Also, I love all the Hitchcock films you listed. I might go with Vertigo (I gave up on trying to avoid being cliche a long time ago) too, though I love Notorious. Also, I saw somewhere that you weren't a big fan of Spellbound. I actually love that, but it might be due to my love of Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman and not my love of Freud. Also, the Dali sequence.

John - I added your email. Thanks for the easy to follow directions. SERIOUSLY. I'm an idiot when it comes to navigating things. Also, so glad to hear your love for The Hustler. One of the best around. It deserves unanimous love. And, I've really got to re-watch Touch of Evil. I saw it a few years back on TCM late at night and really dug it.

Ben - I watched Catfish without having seen the trailer. I just read something that said watch it, but don't read anything about it. So I did. I subsequently have seen the trailer and do think it is odd that it is played up almost like a thriller (it's nothing like that). I know there is some debate on whether its real or fake, but I watched it as a real documentary, so I will treat it as such. My thoughts on it were pretty much similar to yours. The only problem, and I'll make this clear to everyone, is that I am a horrible judge of documentaries. I pretty much find most documentaries interesting, and can't judge them too harshly. So if any debates are made on Catfish or other documentaries, I probably won't be able to provide interesting commentary.

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I think next up I'll start posting some of my top 10s from the 2000s. Then, at some point, I'd like to post some stuff about my love for the Marx Brothers. Seriously, I love them endlessly and do not care what anyone says. They make me elated. Especially Harpo, hence the picture of him on here. One of my heroes.

Brandon/Ben/Never Let Me Go

Brandon - Glad to hear that you are a Bergman fan, as well. I think he's the greatest film artist of all time (but that's just me, who really knows?). The Virgin Spring is probably my third favorite film of his (behind Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal). I love it; and love the ending. The shot where Marx von Sydow turns away from the camera on his knees is just brilliant.

Glad you like The Hustler (I LOVE Paul Newman, straight up) and Wages of Fear. I have not seen Quai Des Orfevres, but I will definitely check it out now. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve only seen a few Clouzot films, but have loved the ones I have seen. He’s fantastic.

The Hidden Fortress is awesome. I have not seen a Kurosawa film I didn’t like. The dude just made flat-out great movies.

The thing about Blow-Up is that I didn’t expect to like it. I had seen L’avventura and L’eclisse, and definitely could not get into them at all. I wouldn’t say that I am an Antonioni fan, but I really like Blow-Up. It has a lot of the detachment of his other films, but also this tremendous oddness. I find it to be unusual in a very interesting way. It intrigues me. But, I can totally understand not digging it or Antonioni for that matter. He’s hard to get into; I would agree.

Also, what do you think your favorite Hitchcock film is? I’ve thought about this for ages and have never decided.


Ben- Thank you very much for welcoming me! Very kind of you. I’m sure I’ll get a lot out of this. I don’t get to discuss movies with people very often, so I’m excited to finally be able to do so.

I don’t know why I only put classics down for my favorite movies. I have many modern movies that are also among my favorites. I guess the classics are the first to pop in my head. I’m going to post my top 10s for the 2000s soon; that’ll give a decent view of recent movies I like.

I saw Catfish and liked it. I thought it was really fascinating. I’m really eager to read your thoughts on it; I haven’t discussed it with anyone, even though I saw it a while back.
Hopefully some good debate initiates about it.

I see that you saw Blue Valentine. I’m dying to see that myself...probably more than any other movie I haven’t seen from last year. Glad to hear you really liked it. I’m sure it’s great.

Also, I saw a mention of your love for The New World. I absolutely love it too. One of my favorites of the last decade, no doubt about it. Just a beautiful, beautiful movie.

Can’t wait to see your top 10 for 2010!




Never Let Me Go

Just watched it this morning with my brother. I was curious to see this because I read some positive things about it, and knew it was based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (he also wrote The Remains of the Day, which is easily one of the best novels of the last 25 years). Also, I knew that Alex Garland wrote the script. A novelist in his own right, he was responsible for the scripts for 28 Days Later and Sunshine, two movies I absolutely love. So, I really wanted to see this.

Initial response: I liked it. I didn’t love it; it definitely has its problems, but there was enough there for me to appreciate it.

Let’s start with the positives. This movie is gorgeous to look at. The cinematography is impeccable. Great use of lighting. It’s great to look at and it feels great. The exterior shots of the school are especially beautiful, and the shots on the beach are just stunning. The music goes well with some of the shots too. There were times when a plaintive violin was played over some exceptional images, and I felt like I could watch and listen all day.

The acting is pretty much solid. Andrew Garfield is probably the stand out one of the bunch. He’s the only actor that seems to be trying to really make his role into a character. He adds some nice nuance. This, plus his work in The Social Network, makes me excited to see him in more films.

The negatives. It moves too quickly. This is probably from trying to fit too much in from the novel, something that commonly happens with adaptations from books. You never get too much time to spend with the characters, or to let scenes unfold slowly. I wouldn’t have minded if the film were longer so that we could have spent more time getting to know the characters and letting them interact more. *SPOILER WARNING: How much greater would our re-introduction to Keira Knightley’s character post-operations be if we had spent more time around her? I think we would have felt her degredation and death much more had she been developed more. SPOILER WARNING OVER.*

The film is working with a very tragic concept (I won’t spoil it for anyone if they don’t know what it’s about). It’s almost achingly sad when you really think about it. I think if the film had moved a little slower we could have felt this tragedy and this sadness more deeply. I felt like I should have been in tears by the end of it, but I wasn’t. I was moved by the final images of it, but not crestfallen. I’m going to mark that down to pacing and character development.

Not to say that it does a horrible job of pacing or character development, but it just doesn’t do enough to thoroughly soak us in its tragic consequences. Some have criticized the film for being too bleak. Give me a break. It’s supposed to be bleak; its dealing with a horrifying premise. It could only have a tragic outcome. I liked the film’s tragedy; I just wanted to spend more time getting there.

With all of this being said, I did like it. I have no idea where it stands in terms of other films from last year though. I’ll have to decide that later. But, for now, I appreciated its beauty, its tragedy, and its interest in love and time. The last lines and shots of the movie are lovely and harrowing. They make me want to read the novel–I’m sure it contains the tragic depth I’m looking for.

I don’t know if anyone else has seen this or even cares about it. If there is one thing you guys will learn about me though, it is that I am at heart a romantic and a HUGE sap. Don’t ever let me convince you otherwise. I’m always looking for a good cry.

Kaufman/Jonze!!!

All right! We've finally got a synopsis for the new Charlie Kaufman & Spike Jonze collaboration. Deadline says it's a satire about world leaders getting together to decide events that will happen in the world. If they are right, then I'm intrigued. It could be something akin to Dr. Strangelove, but who really knows. These two are so creative that I think it might be impossible to fully anticipate what they have prepared for us. I'm fucking EXCITED! I'd watch anything by this brilliant pair. Let the waiting begin...

Some Favorites

I was initially really anxious/nervous about starting this blog because I didn't know if I could write about movies in any meaningful way. I haven't done a lot of writing on movies. I've loved them and have been interested in them dearly since I first got seriously into them at 13, but I haven't written many reviews or opinions down about them. I've been thinking more about the prospect of writing on movies though, and in the process have become very excited about it. I think it will be fun. I'm eager to try to form my rambling thoughts on movies into somewhat coherent opinions that can be communicated to others. Hopefully I can do so!

Anyway, I just want to briefly mention some of my favorite directors and films. I have my top 10 lists for each year of the 2000s, and I'll try to post those soon.

First of, my favorite director has to be Ingmar Bergman. Wild Strawberries is my absolute favorite movie of all time. It is a beautiful, profound, moving, and poetic masterpiece. Just completely perfect in every way.

As for other directors, I love Fellini, Kubrick, Luis Bunuel, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Terrence Malick, Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin, Visconti, Scorsese, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Polanski, Billy Wilder...

For more modern fellas, I'm really into David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Aronofsky, the Coens, Charlie Kaufman, David Fincher, Hanake, von Trier (I know Brandon is not a fan of these last two, but I dig 'em). There's probably a bunch that I'm forgetting, but oh well. That's a decent run down of some filmmakers I respect and admire.

Here are some of my favorite movies:

-The Decalogue (Kieslowski, 1988)

-La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960)

-Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975)

-The Phantom of Liberty (Bunuel, 1974)

-Days of Heaven (Malick,1978)

-The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

-Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen, 1986)

-Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952)

-The Wages of Fear (Clouzot, 1953)

-Blow-Up (Antonioni, 1966)

-Duck Soup (McCarey, 1933)

-Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

-It's a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)

-The Gold Rush (Chaplin, 1925)

-All About Eve (Mankiewicz, 1950)

-The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946)

-Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)

-All the President's Men (Pakula, 1976)

-The Hustler (Rossen, 1961)

I don't know why I put all the directors' names and years for these, but it just seemed respectful to do. Haha As if there were another Citizen Kane or Godfather to which I were referring....

Anyway, those are some movies I really like (at least the ones I can think off the top of my head).

I have Never Let Me Go coming on Netflix tomorrow. Maybe that will be my first review. Harry Knowles seems to love it, but we will see. I haven't read the book, but I've read other books by Ishiguro and think he is a tremendous writer. I'm sure the film has absolutely nothing on the book though.