November 21, 2009
PODCAST: Michael Shannon
If you know actor Michael Shannon by name, chances are it's because of his searing, Oscar-nominated performance as head-case John Givings in last year's Revolutionary Road. Yet the Kentucky-born Brooklynite has brought his towering presence and curious intensity to dozens of projects, most notably Bug, World Trade Center, Shotgun Stories, and Werner Herzog's upcoming My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. (Click here for my podcast with Herzog for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, in which Shannon has a small role.) The actor's latest, which premiered at Sundance this year, is the post-9/11 noir thriller The Missing Person:
Writer/director Noah Buschel's third feature stars Michael Shannon as John Rosow, a private detective hired to tail a man, Harold Fullmer, on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Rosow gradually uncovers Harold’s identity as a missing person... [Plot spoiler redacted]. Persuaded by a large reward, Rosow is charged with bringing Harold back to his wife in New York City against his will. Ultimately, Rosow must confront whether the decision to return Harold to a life that no longer exists is the right one.Sitting down with Shannon to discuss The Missing Person, our conversation segued to the first time music made him cry, a certain auteur's fake food, and the delights of being in Kangaroo Jack. To listen to the podcast, click here. (18:50) Podcast Music
INTRO: J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton, "Missing Person"
OUTRO: The Jesus Lizard, "Boilermaker" [The Missing Person is now playing in New York, and opens in Los Angeles on November 27th. For more info, please visit the official site.]
Posted by ahillis at 7:47 PM
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November 19, 2009
DVD OF THE WEEK: The Exiles
by Jeffrey M. Anderson
directed by Kent MacKenzie
1961, 72 minutes, USA
Milestone Films
Most people have probably never heard of Kent MacKenzie's historically and culturally essential film The Exiles (1961). Some clips of it surfaced in Thom Andersen's exceptional 2004 cine-essay Los Angeles Plays Itself—about the The City of Angels as depicted in movies—but unfortunately, most people have never heard of that film either. Andersen included it prominently because it managed to find vivid corners of the city that didn't actually look like set dressing. Now, thanks to Milestone Films (who also gave us the 2007 re-release and 2008 DVD of Charles Burnett's extraordinary Killer of Sheep), The Exiles has been released uncut on an outstanding two-disc set—presented by Burnett himself.
Continue reading "DVD OF THE WEEK: The Exiles"Posted by ahillis at 10:55 PM
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November 17, 2009
PODCAST: Werner Herzog

Nicolas Cage plays a rogue detective who is as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs—while playing fast and loose with the law. He wields his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he becomes a high-functioning addict who is a deeply intuitive, fearless detective reigning over the beautiful ruins of New Orleans with authority and abandon. Complicating his tumultuous life is the prostitute he loves (Eva Mendes). Together they descend into their own world marked by desire, compulsion, and conscience. The result is a singular masterpiece of filmmaking: equally sad and manically humorous.In my third annual chat with Herzog, we sat down to discuss the importance of self-irony, playing homage to Klaus Kinski, what he's looking for in applicants of his first-ever Rogue Film School seminar, and why he has yet to bring his distinctive voice to an audiobook version of his filmmaking diary Conquest of the Useless. To listen to the podcast, click here. (18:31) Podcast Music
INTRO: Nicolas Cage, "Love Me Tender (from Wild at Heart)"
OUTRO: Schoolly D, "Signifying Rapper"
Posted by ahillis at 9:28 PM
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November 14, 2009
PODCAST: Jason Schwartzman
In director Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox (read Vadim Rizov's "Film of the Week" review), 29-year-old actor Jason Schwartzman—who began his screen career working with Anderson as the overambitious teen hero of Rushmore, then co-starred in and co-wrote The Darjeeling Limited—lends his voice to the role of Ash. A runty young fox who longs for the attention and affection of his father Mr. Fox (George Clooney), Ash spends most of the story in a quiet jealous huff over his cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson), who seems to be better than him in just about every sport—including the art of romance.
Sitting down with Schwartzman before Fantastic Mr. Fox's limited release, we discussed the film, familial competition, his hilarious new HBO series Bored to Death, his band Coconut Records (did we mention he was a musician before he was a thespian?), and a somewhat unusual vice.
To listen to the podcast, click here. (15:30)
Podcast MusicINTRO: Georges Delerue, "Une petite île"
OUTRO: Coconut Records, "Saint Jerome"
Posted by ahillis at 10:26 AM
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November 12, 2009
FILM OF THE WEEK: Fantastic Mr. Fox
by Vadim Rizov
Posted by ahillis at 4:37 PM
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November 10, 2009
DVD OF THE WEEK: Spread

directed by David Mackenzie
2009, 97 minutes, USA
Anchor Bay Films Maybe it's a misnomer to hail an Ashton Kutcher indie vehicle the week's highest recommendation (the case certainly won't be made here that it's more or less worthwhile viewing than Up, Lake Tahoe or Ballast), but Scottish director David Mackenzie and writer Jason Dean Hall's clever, pruriently entertaining satire about a sociopathic hipster grifter deserves a better shot at exposure—no pun intended—after the damning reviews it's had since Sundance. It's a film that's easy to misread and dismiss as superficial pap simply because its characters are prone to repulsively opportunistic behavior. Continue reading "DVD OF THE WEEK: Spread"
Posted by ahillis at 4:20 PM
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November 7, 2009
DVD OF THE WEEK & PODCAST: Wings of Desire
In celebration of Criterion's deluxe double-DVD and Blu-ray treatment of Wings of Desire, my Benten Films partner-in-crime Andrew Grant and I rewatched Wim Wenders' 1987 masterpiece (and pored over the bonus features) to discuss the film's elusive magic and why a work so specific to East-West German tensions has aged so gracefully. Andrew reminisces about spending time in Berlin around the era of the production, with other topics of conversation including They Might Be Giants, Nick Cave's inner thoughts, Peter Falk's unconscious plot hole, a rather unfortunate sequel, and how Wings of Desire almost ended with an pie fight. If you haven't already absorbed its pleasures (or, god forbid, you only know its atrocious H'wood remake, City of Angels), here's the Criterion synopsis:
Wings of Desire is one of cinema's loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin), he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black-and-white and color by the legendary Henri Alékan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.To listen to the podcast, click here. (17:09) Podcast Music
INTRO: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "From Her to Eternity"
OUTRO: They Might Be Giants, "Road Movie to Berlin"
Posted by ahillis at 10:34 AM
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November 4, 2009
The Red Shoes: Relaced and Restored

Posted by ahillis at 7:15 PM
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October 31, 2009
PODCAST: Tom Noonan (The House of the Devil)
Among other things, Tom Noonan is a musician, playwright, and writer-director of two acclaimed films (What Happened Was, The Wife), but most will sooner recognize this tall, reserved but eerily intense gentleman as a memorable character actor from films as diverse as Manhunter, Mystery Train, and Synecdoche New York. His latest chance to effortlessly steal scenes arrives in Ti West's wonderfully slow-burning, retro-horror flick, The House of the Devil:
Sam (Jocelin Donahue) is a pretty college sophomore, so desperate to earn some cash for a deposit on an apartment that she accepts a babysitting job even after she finds out there is no baby. Mr. and Mrs. Ulman (cult actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) are the older couple who lure Sam out to their creeky Victorian mansion deep in the woods, just in time for a total lunar eclipse. Megan (Greta Gerwig) is Sam's best friend, who gives her a ride out to the house, and reluctantly leaves her there despite suspecting that something is amiss. Victor (AJ Bowen) at first seems like just a creepy guy lurking around the house, but quickly makes it clear that Sam will end this night in a bloody fight for her life...Sitting down with Mr. Ulman himself in what sounds halfway through our podcast as if it might actually be Satan's homestead, Noonan and I spoke about his dramatic workshops, being naturally creepy, why he never reads the whole script, and anecdotal remembrances of working with John Cassavetes, Michael Mann, and Michael Cimino—"just a terrible human being." To listen to the podcast, click here. (18:33) Podcast Music
INTRO: The Fixx, "One Thing Leads to Another"
OUTRO: The Fugs, "I Command the House of the Devil" [The House of the Devil is now playing in select theaters and is available on VOD through Magnolia Pictures.]
Posted by ahillis at 5:52 AM
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October 27, 2009
DVD OF THE WEEK: High School Record
directed by Ben Wolfinsohn
2005, 75 minutes, USA
Factory 25 Where the Wild Things Are tried to emulate the untamed insecurities of childhood via impressionist sun flares and the pageantry of imagination, but it was a blockbuster rumpus too overearnest and laboriously designed to evoke such emotional authenticity. Far more successful in exposing the raw-nerve anxieties of youth onscreen is an older, rougher, hipper kind of wild thing altogether, Ben Wolfinsohn's High School Record, which could still be about King Max if he grew up to be a confused, complicated teenager who finally discovered garage rock. Neither caricatured like Napoleon Dynamite and its whitewashed imitators with hand-drawn titles, nor played for teens-gone-wild shock value (Afterschool, Kids), Wolfinsohn's naturalistic, semi-improvised series of awkward comic vignettes at a performing arts school absolutely nails the liberating/frightening social moments of post-pubescence in all their riches of embarrassments. Having not seen the inside of a locker since the mid-'90s (which reminds me of some sample dialogue that ages me, between two girls who hooked up with the same dude: "You wanna be his girlfriend now? That's so '90s!"), I still recognized enough of my younger unsure self that I was occasionally and unexpectedly laughing aloud. Continue reading "DVD OF THE WEEK: High School Record"
Posted by ahillis at 10:54 AM
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October 24, 2009
PODCAST: Antichrist (Steve Dollar, Andrew Grant, Michael Tully)

A grieving couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreat to "Eden," their isolated cabin in the woods, where they hope to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse...After a Skype video conference with von Trier following last month's NYFF press screening (for further reading, see my recent interview with the Danish auteur), I shared some post-game commentary about Antichrist with freelance critic (and regular GreenCine Daily contributor) Steve Dollar, my esteemed Benten Films cohort Andrew Grant, and Hammer to Nail's own Michael Tully—who really just wants to treat von Trier to a day at an American amusement park. Dollar keeps thinking about Couples Retreat (they both take place at remote getaways called "Eden"), and Grant addresses that frequent charge of misogyny thrown at the 53-year-old filmmaker's work. To listen to the podcast, click here. (17:19) Podcast Music
INTRO: Björk and Thom Yorke, "I've Seen It All"
OUTRO: Marilyn Manson, "Antichrist Superstar" [Related: FlavorWire's Review: Mythological Revisionism or Misogynistic Schlock?]
Posted by ahillis at 6:04 PM
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