Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Sidney Lumet has made some of the finest American films since his debut with 12 Angry Men in the late 50s. His strength, which he plays here, is to depict bumblers trying to commit crimes for the first time. Think Dog Day Afternoon.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is Lumet's second strong film in the last couple of years, the other being Find Me Guilty. Where FMG was more of a straight arrow court drama, BTDKYD unwinds with a totally non-linear narrative and most of the colors tweaked for high contrast.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are brothers who scheme to rob their parents jewelry store. "It's an easy mom and pop shop in a strip mall" they intone. Of course everything goes horribly wrong in the most tragic manner possible.
Aiding and abetting are Marisa Tomei (who is impossibly beautiful in this film) and Albert Finney. Hawke in particular really nails his character, a typical divorced dad so burdened with child support and debt he cannot fathom the consequences of his actions.
BTDKYD contains some strong images of drug use and adultry and at times borders on B-movie trashiness. That's when it's firing on all pistons.

Coen Bros. back strong with NO COUNTRY

No Country For Old Men effortlessly vaults to the top of the Coen Brothers film oeuvre. The film is embedded with imagery from the entire work of Joel and Ethan Coen. For instance, there's a dog chase that copies motifs from the canine chase in Raising Arizona. There's the deadly aim of a stone faced killer that reminds of events in Blood Simple and Fargo. When Anton Chigurh shoots a large bird late on night on a bridge at point blank range it echoes Leonard Smalls in Raising Arizona blowing up a lizard with a hand grenade.
That dog chase is also like the hat that blows in the wind from Miller's Crossing in that it's hard imagery to shake from your head, even days after viewing. Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin own this film. A chase across the Marfa/Big Bend region of Texas (the film was lensed there and in New Mexico) pits Bardem against Brolin. Stolen drug money propels the greed factor in Brolin's case, however Bardem as Chigurh just likes to kill people. Solid support from Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root (I didn't even recognize him) and Kelly MacDonald give sub plots a high standard.
Then there's that dog that chases Brolin across the scrub brush desert, then dives after him into a river and starts swimming like Jaws. The Coen Brothers films always remind me of Hitchcock because like that master's films their stories always have these great cinematic sequences that will last forever. There's true ambiguity to the ending, which has the Coen's introducing new characters five minutes from the end. It's a violent film that ends on a soft note sung by a supporting character. Some people may find that strange but I like the way the Coen Brothers roll.

Dear Pillow

Dear Pillow never made it to Houston (where both of the filmmakers originally hail) - but now this true indie film is available on DVD with some cool extras. The team of Bryan Poyser (writer and director) and Jacob Vaughan (producer, cinematographer, editor) made this ultra low budget film in 2004. Dear Pillow, the engaging commentary track tells us, was one of the first movies shot using a DVX-100 24P digital camera. To put that piece of equipment in perspective it cost slightly more than high-end consumer digital video cameras but less than the rent on the condo the filmmakers leased for a week in Park City Utah when Dear Pillow played at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival.
Dear Pillow played theatrically in Los Angeles, other worldwide film festivals, and a two-month stint at one of the Austin Alamo Drafhouse Theaters. The film stars Gary Chason, long a casting director in Texas (his credits include Last Picture Show and Brewster McCloud so you could say he's indirectly responsible for discovering Randy Quaid and Shelly Duvall) as the cool old dude named Dusty who writes for a porno mag and Rusty Kelly (Wes) as a teen living in the same apartment complex who dreams of professionally writing the same kind of sex hijinx. Wes listens in on cell phone calls with a radio shack type of receiver. Much to his chagrin the apartment manager, Viviane Vives, makes money on the side as a phone sex operative. By the time the film concludes they have all gathered in Dusty's one bedroom unit to film an ad hoc porno film.
The DVD includes a couple of shorts made by Poyser and Vaughan including Pleasureland, a short reminiscent of David Cronenberg's Videodrome about a guy (Vaughan, quite naked) who becomes addicted to sex vids and in the process becomes part coaxial.
I personally worked with Vaughan at Idea Integration (a web design company) several years ago and could tell he was on the fast track to be an active independent filmmaker. Another short film the duo made, Seen, is available on Youtube and chronicles a school shooting.
Dear Pillow constantly amazes mainly due to Poyser's sharp and witty script. The film has a polished look that never gives away its miniscule budget. Quite frankly its mixture of coming of age comedy with sex drama interludes is one of the more original films, indie or otherwise, of the last few years.

Johnny Cash DVDs

It's a coin toss, one side heads, the other tails when I watched two Johnny Cash Christmas Special DVDs. Released by Shout Factory in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame these two discs - Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1976 & 1977 - would be an excellent watch at any holiday party.The kitch element abounds through the 1976 special but not really during the 1977 special, wihich includes an all-star tribute to Elvis as sung by Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. The 1976 show will probably be watched once, while the 1976 show stands up to repeat viewings.If you're a fan of the recent biopic Walk the Line, several incidents in that movie (stationed in Europe while in the service, cutting his first recoding at Sun Records) are first given treatment here.The 1976 Christmas Special starts off with Tony Orlando, and a version of Tie A Yellow Ribbon will make you cringe. Actually there's a lot to said for the fact that musicians have control in the studio but none in front of the camera. Johnny and June and even Tony Orlando look askance through this one. Here when they have to perform under deadlines the magic is gone. The rest of the show includes guest appearance by Billy Graham and Roy Clark. Fortunately a Barbara Mandrell guitar solo takes you by surprise and makes the whole thing palatable.The 1976 show was shot in Johnny's homes in Bon Aqua and Hendersonville Tennessee. By contrast the 1977 special is stage bound, but abounds in energy. Throughout the entire proceedings Cash is the man - his presence has a sincerity that you never doubt. An added plus has Cash and June performing Darling Companion, one of the best songs in their repertoire.

Leonard Nimoy on The Full Body Project

Leonard Nimoy was giving a lecture in conjuction with his latest book The Full Body Project. Nimoy tells about the passage from actor to photographer. "There's always suspicion when an actor enters a different realm of the arts," began Nimoy.
Nimoy tells of walking out of a L.A. function with Tom Hanks. Hanks was approached by some kids who wanted to take their picture with him. Sure, replied Hanks but who's going to take the snapshot? One of the kids handed the camera to Nimoy and said, "Here, you're a good photographer."
At that point, Nimoy chuckles, "I had validation of my career path as a photographer."
During his speech to the audience in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Brown Auditorium Nimoy shows a photo of a hand with the four fingers divided into a V. Yes, it is the Vulcan greeting sign from Star Trek, but Nimoy intones it is much more.
The hand sign was originally seen by Nimoy during a Jewish ceremony where the rabbi made his hand into that shape to evoke the sign of God. The letter it forms in Hebrew is also associated with the name of God, as well as the first letter of Skekhina, also the title of his previous book (2002) that examines the essence of the feminine manifestation of God.
Years after seeing the hand sign as a child, Nimoy explains, he was on the set of Star Trek on the episode Amok Time. This was the first utterance of the phrase Live Long and Prosper. Nimnoy suggested a hand greeting unique to Vulvcans and the four-fingered V sign was born.
Nimoy's current book, which was selling like hot cakes at $50 a pop at the subsequent book signing, presents photos of full-figured women who "defy media images of the ideal female figure."