Chloe

Winston-Salem's art house theatre a/perture beckons yet again, this time for the Atom Egoyan film Chloe.



Gorgeous Julianne Moore frets over her hunch that husband Liam Neeson is having affairs. What better way to get the scoop yourself than to hire a hooker to bait him and report back to you, right? This is the premise of the far-fetched film Chloe, a remake of a 2003 French film entitled Nathalie.

Distrust sends one into previously uncharted depths. To what lengths would you go to get the truth? As a wife longing for just a loving touch, how easy is it to go from using a hooker as an information gatherer to getting physically turned on by the specific details of the encounters?

With the news you receive, consider the source. Can anyone be trusted?

Matinee.

Alice in Wonderland in 3-D

Honestly, on a day off, there's an absolute way I enjoy unwinding and detaching myself from reality: an afternoon in a darkened theater with some sort of film on the big screen taking me away to other worlds, other times, other realms. My most recent day off found just such a scenario. A 12:00 viewing of Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland in 3-D.

Tim Burton + Johnny Depp? Is there nothing wrong these two collaborators can do? Granted, the story in this updated film of Alice going BACK to Wonderland 13 years after her first trip (and I do mean "trip") is a touch lacking. But the dark visuals of a Tim Burton film plus the iconic and trippy acting of Johnny Depp trump the weak story. Visually mesmerizing, especially in 3-D, but a rather dull story.

Trippy and engaging if you just check your brain at the door and drink in all of Depp's scenes and let the screen do the thinking for you. Groovy man.

(And it didn't hurt that Alice was hot.)

Matinee.

The White Ribbon

Hit up a/perture for another arty film. Tonight? The German film The White Ribbon. Black and white, subtitled, and a 2 & 1/2 hour mindfuck.

Eerie. Observe:


"I gave God a chance to kill me. And he didn't. So he must be pleased with me."

Creepy.

Pre-World War I Germany. A country hamlet is "ruled" by the triumvirate of the estate baron, the preacher, and the doctor. Each rules with unbending and vicious control. Strange accidents occur: a wire is stretched between two trees felling the doctor from his horse, the farmer's wife falls through rotten floorboards at the sawmill, a local child is found bound and beaten, a disabled child is found nearly blinded. Who's the culprit? This tight-knit village is rocked with tragedy, but no one knows anything....

The preacher's children are punished for their particular insolence by a "purifying" beating with a cane and then the public disgrace of wearing the symbol of purity: a white ribbon, a la the scarlet letter or more appropriately in this scenario a yellow Star of David.

The local schoolteacher reminisces and narrates the tale as he recalls. He was determined to find out which of the hellish children committed these heinous acts...until the powers-that-be squash his inquiry with threats of arrest.

A mystery that does not reveal the criminal(s). You are left hanging. The news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination occurs, and the movie just.....ends.

An artsy whodunit that frankly left me not caring. Too long and tedious to not get anywhere. Filmed artistically and framed well, but I just started to daydream and waver mid-film.

Matinee minus.

Crazy Heart

OK, I'll admit that generally the musical genre does NOTHING for me. But being a rabid Oscars fan, I was intrigued by the Best Actor nod to Jeff Bridges. So as a lemming, I hit the theater last week (yes, I'm behind on blogging) to see what all the fuss was about. Outstanding.


"Funny how falling feels like flying for a little while."

Old country singer Bad Blake is down on his luck playing bowling alleys and general low-scale venues. His headlining days are behind him. His protege has taken the "new country" fans by storm. Whiskey and cigarettes and cheap motels and his 1978 Suburban "Bessie" define his existence. Single mom Maggie Gyllenhaal is a reporter named Jean who covers him for a small newspaper and becomes smitten; never mind she's young enough to be his daughter, or possible GRANDdaughter. Bad Blake's on a relentless course towards destruction via booze. Can Jean save him? Should she? Can anybody? Can music?

Really a treat and a deserved win for Bridges. WOW.

Is there even a doubt? Full Price.

Newest addition to my DVD library

Best Picture. It won. The Hurt Locker. Stunning film. Commented on these very pages in August 2009: http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2009/08/hurt-locker.html And now, in accordance with my collection addiction, it joins all the other Best Picture winners on the shelf.

Congratulations Ms. Bigelow on recognition of your very powerful film.

2 days, 3 movies

I'm super behind on posting here (shocking). But suffice to say I spent a good chunk of time at a/perture cinema recently. My upcoming schedule is brutal with regard to free time spent blogging (in a fit of irony I'll try to blog about what I've done) so here's just a quick re-hash fo what I saw:

First, the North Carolina-filmed Wesley

The YouTube trailer is quite grainy and frankly not blogworthy, so here's a much clearer trailer from the film studio website: http://founderypictures.com/pages/pages/trailer.php

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The 2nd film was The Last Station.

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Lastly, was A Single Man.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

There is nothing I can really say here that would make sense unless you had consumed a frankly voluminous amount of hallucinogens. Wow.

The inevitable HofG trailer has a glitch in that the powers-that-be do not want anyone to embed the trailer, so here's the best I can do: a link to the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khizyk3Y5lo

Just a visually stunning feature. Terry Gilliam strikes again with a film of such grandiose visuals and mind-bending scenarios. Sideshow artist Dr. Parnassus has a magic mirror, one where your dreams become reality when you step through it. Where did this mystic come from? Just how old is he? What's to become of the wayward vagrant (the outstanding Heath Ledger in his final role) that joins them? Ledger died during shooting, so his character behind the mirror is played with various quirks by Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law. Mesmerizing.

Stream of consciousness Monty Python animation meets Alice in Wonderland meets LSD. Confounding.

If you're into this sort of thing, it's easily worth the Full Price I'll give it. It makes it so just for the fact that Tom Waits plays the Devil. Tom Fucking Waits!

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Movies at a/perture cinema in downtown Winston-Salem do not hang around long. There are just two theaters and so many independent films out there that most last for just one week, Friday through Thursday. Between the snow accumulation we received and a stretch of 2-10 workdays, this past Thursday was my final opportunity to see an all-star cast in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

The trailer:


Pippa had a checkered past of dangerous habits and wayward journeys...until she met a publisher 30 years her senior. Now, freshly released of most material possessions, they begin the final chapter in their marriage in a retirement community. Flashbacks and zig-zags in Pippa's story continue throughout, giving you the glimpse that the down-to-earth Pippa who dotes on her elderly husband was once a hellbent girl with touches of counter-culture danger. Which Pippa is the real Pippa? Can she handle holding up the airs of humble wife or will her past come back to retake its proper place?

A great cast that kept me in awe. However, the final movie product fell a smidge below Full Price for me.

Matinee.

A Serious Man

Filmmakers the Coen Brothers are at it again. This time with a study on a lowly Jewish professor in suburban Minnesota who is just trying to do right amongst the loads and loads of disasters that befall him.

The trailer:


With regard to his health, work, marriage, spirituality, anything and everything is heaped upon him as he tries to make his way through the world. Obstacles abound.

The film begins with a short piece set in Poland decades upon decades ago. A stranger who helps a local man fix his wheelcart arrives at the door...to the dismay of the wife who insists the stranger died three years ago. The man is a demon, she exclaims.

How many demons show up at the door of the poor protagonist in A Serious Man? Too many to count.

Matinee score from me here.

Broken Embraces

Another evening of independent cinema at Winston-Salem's a/perture cinema. Last time it was a film from Belgium, and now...Spain: Pedro Almodóvar's subtitled Broken Embraces. Penelope Cruz....yum.

The trailer:


A back-and-forth mystery from 1992 to present-day with Cruz as secretary-by-day/escort-by-night who is discovered and fulfills her dream of being an actress...against the wishes of her elder lover. The director of the film is smitten by her and it results in his best work ever. What a film! It will be a fine piece of cinema! Until...

Disaster.

The director is blinded. The muse is....

I don't want to ruin it. Twists! Turns! Gasps! A shocking ending!

A truly remarkable film. I loved it. FULL PRICE easy....boutique theater or not.

A Town Called Panic

My first venture over to the new a/perture cinema in downtown Winston-Salem occurred tonight. The inaugural Gordon showing? A Belgian stop-action animation film A Town Called Panic. Yes. Belgian. From Belgium. Subtitled.

The trailer:


Wallace and Gromit meets little plastic toys.

It's Horse's birthday (June 21...quite nice). Cowboy and Indian have forgotten. A gift! What to give their good friend Horse???? A barbecue pit. They'll build Horse a barbecue pit. Doing the calculations, 50 bricks will be required. Ordering online, with a few extra zero's added to the end of '50' yields hijinks and hilarity. The mischievous Cowboy and Indian have finally gone too far and the town is set upon its ear.

Psychedelic with its warping plot line and scene locations. A bizarre journey. But one that results in plenty of laughs, touching moments, and outright drug-induced jaw dropping. I'm not condoning illicit substances to augment the film...but it might help.

Oh such a quick FULL PRICE score is given. A barrel of fun careening over the falls.

a/perture cinema

If you live ANYWHERE near Winston-Salem, NC and you enjoy film, you owe it to yourself and to the arts community to go to the new a/perture cinema. It's downtown right across the street from the Mellow Mushroom and a few blocks up from Foothills Brewing. Described rather succinctly by the theater owners themselves:

an independent theater in downtown winston salem. 2 screens, 160 seats, beer, wine, and a whole bunch of movies you’ve probably never heard of.

Outstanding. REALLY looking forward to the films they'll show. Sadly, the window for most of them is small, so if you see something you may enjoy....GO SEE IT IMMEDIATELY. It might not hang around very long.

I foresee many a 30-minute drive from Greensboro to the newest theater in the area.

Avatar in 3-D

Had a day off recently and quite thoroughly enjoyed sitting in a dark theater with crazy 3-D glasses on for over 2 & 1/2 hours. I fell in line with the hive mind and offered my own tribute to the throne of James Cameron. Cannot. Stay. Away.

Here's the trailer, which pretty much tells the whole story:

Breath-taking visuals. Seriously. Just truly awe-inspiring. A good thing too, as the incredible sensory optics are needed to trump the knuckle-dragging dialog. Who knew that in the year 2154 stereotypical military-types are still using such W. phrases as "Shock and awe" and fighting terror with...wait for it....terror.

The story? Dripping with irony and modern day comparisons. The lush and beautiful world of Pandora is a hotbed for a mineral highly sought after on our dying Earth. We've made our way to their world to obtain the precious rock, but need to protect ourselves behind a "green zone". Apparently the inhabitants of this gorgeous world are rather protective of their environment and use guerrilla tactics against the military to keep them at bay.

To coordinate a more diplomatic solution, human and Na'avi DNA are melded into clone material that can be controlled via an elaborate mind-meld. The creatures are "avatars" of the controllers. This way, humans can more readily interact with the locals and "convince" them to relocate so we can mine their precious mineral.

A Marine grunt paraplegic whose twin brother scientist has died is transferred to the Avatar program since his DNA is so compatible. He's charged with using this new skill to infiltrate the locals and "convince" them to relocate. As he spends more time with the locals, he inevitably sees the errors of his military's ways, falls in love, and eventually leads the locals against the humans.

Dances with Wolves + the Smurfs + the Iraq War + Al Gore. The human becomes immersed in the foreign customs, thereby attempting to make a social statement against war and the urbanization of greenery.

Dialog dripping with cheese overcome by FANTASTIC visuals. Still, the 3-D experience made it an EASY FULL PRICE rating. It readily overcame the script and cheap metaphors. A cinematic delight.

One lonely December 2009 post

Post #601.

Been a while, eh? You still come around here? You still on the edge of your seat waiting for an update? Or have you given up? I wouldn't blame you. Why keep coming back when I don't update anything for over a month. This being said, the muse to type something relevant or witty or newsworthy on these very pages has seemingly disappeared. The urge and wanting to do so is gone. Those who follow my oh-so-interesting (sarcasm) adventures already do so on the interwebs via The Facebook or The Twitter. Here on The Blogger?....I just don't "feel it" at the moment.

So maybe in 2010, there will be an update on a brewday or a movie or something interesting I've done. But for the most part, the urge to share these types of things on this medium has subsided greatly. I guess I'll be around, just not so often. Try not to wait up.

So to recap December 2009 in one fell swoop:

The Fantastic Mr. Fox / Chargers game / Great Lakes beer school / Steelers game / Dave Matthews Band concert film in 3-D / nasty snowstorm that canceled my yearly A Christmas Carol theater excursion / wicked bronchitis.

Here's to an improved 2010. Finally, a vigorous and hearty FUCK YOU to 2009 and the events that threaten to ruin me as the entity you previously knew.

Zombieland

I'm a little behind on some of my entertainment "goings on", and for that gentle reader (all three of you) I wholeheartedly apologize. Took in some late night brain candy last week after work. Hit the pool hall (won just 1 out of 3) then a 11:30pm screening of guilty pleasure and comically bloody Zombieland.

The trailer:


Humanity is in ruins. Zombies now run rampant feasting on the living (or the recently deceased) for their sustenance. A few hearty humans have survived the traumatic turn of events and band together for survival and, well, the fun of zombie killing. Names mean nothing in this post-apocalyptic world, so to not to get too close, our heroes are known by their destinations: Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, etc. Just trying to make their way through and survive, they battle trust issues along their travels.

Frankly, a fun movie. Woody Harrelson is terrific. Jesse Eisenberg is great with his "how to" list of survival guide tips. A special guest star gives a jolt of comedic flair giving the cameo of all cameos. A solid Matinee.

Now limber up, perform some cardio, and find yourself a Twinkie.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Last Wednesday's movie extravaganza ended with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Three movies (tried to make it four) in one day. A wonderfully satisfying day.

The trailer:


I didn't see the 3-D version, just the regular. Sometimes those 3-D glasses give me a headache, so the regular version it was. A fantastical film of a young inventor whose concoctions didn't quiiiiite turn out well. Until,.....

Living on an island in the Atlantic, the Swallow Falls community lives off the sardine trade. A sardine cannery, fishing tackle, everything related to sardines keeps the island vibrant. Until the sardine demand plummets, leaving the town to subsist on their wares that won't sell. And suddenly the gray skies seem grayer, and the sardines become a drudgery to consume.

The savior is our young inventor, whose first successful invention turns water into food. And once the first cheeseburger rainstorm occurs, the island turns itself around. And of course, once a good thing happens, people want more. The mayor sees a cash cow and demands more and more. Can the invention handle the demand? What happens when people get all that they ask for? Can the proverbial day be saved?

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Really. Full Price for me.

9

This past Wednesday was mega-movie day. After Extract and lunch at Natty Greene's, the 2nd film of the day was 9.

The trailer:


An animated film concerning a post-apocolyptic world where machines have overtaken humans and nine little patchwork creations scurry about with their attempt to survive. A seemingly mix of The Terminator, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings.

Fascinating animation and a heavy story. What more would you expect when the name Tim Burton is involved? It had a dark story, but the similarities to Frodo (along with his voice) and the whole "I'm going to stay uber-positive during these dark times and we're gonna DO IT!" was a bit out of place for me. The visuals were stunning, the other parts not so much. Entertaining, yet I felt it could have been heavier and would have more to tell.

Matinee.

Extract

Had a day off Wednesday. I have been having a shitty work schedule lately, carving into my free time and my more enjoyable activities. So, to compensate, Wednesday saw a whopping three films viewed. THREE! It was to be four, but my dinner plans were skewed and it ran into the final 9:35pm showing of Movie #4. So three it was.

The trailer, including the final few seconds of it that just makes me laugh so hard I physically choke:


Mike Judge goes from Office Space to Extract. The boss as fool in 1999 to the boss as empathetic character in 2009. A potpourri of everyman (and woman) in the workplace environment, with Jason Bateman the approachable owner of a food flavoring extract company. Storylines not about the fantastically obtuse, but "regular" people. For example: the small business built from the ground up. Not a huge auto manufacturer, not an enormous plant, but a small town company where the CEO knows the names of everyone on the floor while they make and package a passion....food flavoring. The wife whose sweatpants equate to a chastity belt. The dreadfully dull chatterbox of a neighbor. The town's big name personal injury lawyer who's a big name because he advertises on bus benches.

Your everyday small town life, until a beautiful drifter rolls into town and turns everything on its head. The hardest part for me was to separate the voice. Mila Kunis does the voice of homely Meg on Family Guy, and it was difficult to see beauty with THAT VOICE come out.

This being said, it was struggling to make a Matinee score. HBO would probably suffice, but I'm feeling generous and will go for Matinee.

The Age of Stupid

A "green" movie advertised strictly by word-of-mouth (thanks for the heads-up Rep. Dennis Kucinich!) that tackles the issue of global warning. Documentary meets dramatization. Entered the Guinness Book of World Records for a film premiere: 400+ American cities and 60+ countries. To cut down on environmental carbon "build-up", instead of cans and cans of celluloid shipped across the country, it was a satellite link-up simulcast from New York City. Kinda cool to see live pre-screening footage on the big screen. Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville, and Concord were the NC towns screening it. Concord it was.

Anyhoo, the trailer:



"Why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?"

The director was inspired by Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, with its multiple characters and their intertwined stories concerning the drug trade. For this, there are multiple characters and their own particular stories (the wind turbine engineer, the African woman dreaming of the medical field, the entrepreneur in India and his airline startup, the Hurricane Katrina survivor, etc.) and how they relate to global warming.

Fascinating. Think Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth with added drama. Rising tall in the watery Arctic in the year 2055 is a "storeroom" of the world's antiquities and preserved animals, and one sole human prepares his computer transmission to the stars trying to fathom why we did what we did to ourselves in hopes someone out there could understand why we sentenced our entire world to extinction.

The film ended with a rather dark pallor, but luckily afterward the live feed occurred again with comments and interviews with global figures. This lightened the mood. The focus was Copenhagen in December 2009 and the update of the Kyoto Treaty. 77 days until Copenhagen. 77 days to work out a truly worldwide deal to combat this issue.

Less than 1% of scientists do not believe in human behavior affecting global warming. 2015 is the common year targeted as the pinnacle of the bell curve where the world's "healing" can begin to sweep down the curve. Afterward it may be too late to reverse the upward global temperature rise. 2 degrees yields catastrophe, 6 degrees yields extinction.

A wonderfully introspective film that causes much discussion, and hopefully changed behavior. We are seemingly living within an age of stupid. Luckily, this stupidity can be reversed.

Will we?

Inglourious Basterds

The trailer:


A Quentin Tarantino film, so you know there will be two common themes: the love of film, and violence. Tarantino pays homage to films of yore with an opening credits reminiscent of old timey films. Also, "Chapter 1" of the film harkens back to westerns: "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France".

Multiple storylines intersect here. The SS colonel "Jew Hunter" and his quest: utilizing uncanny investigational techniques and skill. The Jew who escapes the hunter only to plot her own revenge. The Tennessee yank who heads up the Basterds to hunt Nazis, demanding 100 scalps per solider. Yes....scalps. Nazi second-in-command Goebbels and his eye for cinema and promoting his newest propaganda star. The British (with a snappy Mike Myers and his penchant for accents) and their attempt to utilize a film critic soldier to work with a stunning movie starlet double agent and infiltrate the Nazis. Hitler and his move to boost morale by attending the cinema in plain sight of the party. And the bold rewriting of history by Tarantino with a boisterous end of the war scenario.

I didn't realize just how long this film was until it was over. Over 2 1/2 hours? Didn't seem like it in the least. It moved. It didn't bore. And it also wasn't appropriate for the squeamish. There wasn't an overloaded overbearing amount of gore, but it's Tarantino so it was in fact integral.

Vying for second with Reservoir Dogs to chase Pulp Fiction in my personal Tarantino rankings.

I enjoyed it. Full Price.

Now on to the debate about the spelling...