The Order of Myths illuminates the social ritual of the Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. There are segregated aspects of the celebration, there are class issues, and then there's the town itself. The film seems to say about Mobile, this is how we march here. When skipping down the avenue of history Order of Myths recalls how the last slave ship to arrive in America (1859) resulted in a township close to Mobile. Back to the present and the influence of individual families and finally two young ladies who are each the respective queens of various Mardi Gras balls keeps your interest throughout this short film. At just over 70-minutes this documentary by Margaret Brown, who previously helmed a doc on Townes Van Zandt, unveils a lot of information, pageantry and social analysis without coming off as judgmental.
Australia is being sold as a film with epic sweep but you might want to just sweep this one under the rug. Years ago, after Moulin Rouge but before Oliver Stone's Alexander, Baz Luhrmann had his first sweeping epic, a version of Alexander the Great, set to go. Dino De Laurentiis was the producer, the script was polished, Leo Di Caprio was on board, locations had been secured in Morocco. Baz's Al got 86'd because the Stone version beat it to the punch. I would like to see that never made film. Films tend to get scraped because of similarity to other projects, but not always. For instance there were two Titanics in production around the same time, the lesser known one was made for television (1996) and starred a then unknown Catherine Zeta Jones. There's no chance however that anybody was making a project similar to Australia. For one thing it's kind of a pastiche of movie magic moments from an alternative universe where Duel in the Sun, Pearl Harbor and Rabbit Proof Fence are all the same film. The production values are top notch, there's plenty of sweeping high angle shots, and the movie stars fit their clothes well. Australia want to be the greatest film ever made yet it feels like the quickest film ever made. Surely a director as good as Luhrmann could tool this film to a finer point. Only Australia seems to represent the current mode of Hollywood output where the importance rests more on opening date coinciding with the cover story for a magazine (Sexiest Man Alive Hugh Jackman? I think not baby puppy.) than producing the highest degree of filmed entertainment. Nicole Kidman arrives at a remote plantation in Northern Territory, Australia. In the years leading up to WWII the Australian government relocated Aboriginal children, a point that's introduced in a roughly developed subplot involving an incredibly charismatic urchin. The kid hides in Kidman's water tower whenever the sheriff drives around. Kidman hires Jackman to be the ranch drover, a function Jackman performs with extreme machismo. Naturally Kidman and Jackman hook up after ignoring each other and I really wouldn't have minded all the bickering if the film paid off with any leading actors chemistry. It doesn't. They ride horses together but the cattle sequences are routine. The film starts to get going, both editing and plot wise as we move into the third act and the beginning of WWII. The Japanese bomb Darwin, a port city closest to the Pacific Theater, yet the sequence is over quick and not without CGI issues. The confrontation that occurs on an island between Jackman and his posse of Aboriginal dudes and Japanese soldiers puts the film on a perilous slope that Luhrmann's style makes even more operatic and overwrought. The use of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" emphasizes a fantasy bedside story Kidman recites to the kid. The Oz allusion fits too since Australia is Oz, get it. There's a tad too much of that in Australia, yet it's too predictable a programmer to really care.
Are we in the last phase of DVD dominance as digital downloads seek to supplant the DVD disc as a primary source of traditional entertainment? Most probably. People I know like to watch DVD seasons of recent cool shows like Arrested Development or Lost. But I’m old school and I need to luminous glow of 50s and 60s dramas and sit-coms to lull my dreams to fruition. Even though I spent hours (typical seasons were 28 or more episodes then) viewing eps it only took minutes to realize the shows sucked on so many levels. Yet I couldn’t turn away as what I though would be a nostalgic reverie was replaced by a sociological tract of the simplicity of the times. In 1963 the seventh season of Wagon Train expanded to 90-minute color episodes. Time must have been leisure because later 60s westerns also spun an-hour-and-a-half (The Virginian, Cimarron Strip). The scenery of Lone Pine enhances the tales of the pioneers on display but the stories seemed mired in typical plot scenarios (like a kidnapped child now grown and raised as Comanche and referred to as a squaw played by Carolyn Jones with her Indian brother played by teen pop singer Fabian). Barbara Stanwyck shows up pre-Big Valley to provide justice but the politics of the day dictate otherwise. Lee Marvin played a mean cop who tries to rationalize his righteousness with tough talk for three seasons (1957–1960) in M Squad. All 117 episodes are available in a monster set of 15 DVDs. The show even faded and black-and-white has a seedy atmosphere to go along with its urban crime sleuthing. Marvin's a kind of Internal Affairs cop so he investigates different styles of cases week to week. McHale’s Navy in its fourth and last season moved the crew of the PT 73 from the Pacific theater to Italy. Ernest Borgnine speaks in Italian a lot and Tim Conway has a flair for drag comedy. It speaks volumes that this comic version of war where nobody get killed, complete with bathing suit beauties from the local villa, was popular while the Vietnam war was trudging along. Father Knows Best doesn’t fare much better with its standard situations and lily white depiction of 50s America. Still in Season Two it seems this show paved the road for all the family shows to follow. There’s a spirited wisdom to Robert Young’s dad that was lacking even with the paterfamilias in Leave it to Beaver, Donna Reed and Ozzie and Harriet. One episode was even a stand alone western (Stage to Yuma) with Young that featured none of the other cast members. I guess running a pilot during the season was considered experimental in 1955. Moving up a couple of decades in time and also up in quality is Shelly Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre. These amazing 26 enchanted stories were first broadcast on Showtime cable in the mid-80s. Each story, whether a classic like Pinocchio (Paul Reubens) or a more obscure tale like Rumpelstiltskin (Herve Villechaize) gets the star treatment with a guest director and superlative cast. Take the Three Little Pigs with Billy Crystal as a pig and Jeff Goldblum as the big bad wolf. Not every story has a happy Disney ending such as The Little Mermaid’s Pam Dawber who must outsmart whiny witch Karen Black. In Little Red Riding Hood Malcolm McDowell comes as close to Alex (Clockwork Orange) as he ever has even though he’s also a big bad wolf. As great as James Earl Jones always is I daresay his evil genie is definitive in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp. The latter episode was directed by Tim Burton early in his career yet still shows his distinct visual style. For the most part the sets are like color enhanced live television and the biggest players are the flowing costumes, grandiose like you expect with fairy tales. The set comes with a playing card deck of characters for downtime.
Vampires are in vogue with the explosive arrival of Twilight. Meanwhile through the back door a Swedish film playing at one theater (downtown Angelika) called Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) furthers cinema's romance with vampires. Both films are keepers, each playing to their respective audiences, each using different strengths to achieve their goals. Twilight successfully reboots the myth of the undead for a teen/young adult crowd, upgrading familiar traits like a vampire's ability to withstand direct sunlight and presenting the whole affair with a combination of muted earthy tones, shutter manipulated editing and high contrast colors. The vampire clan in Twilight call themselves vegans because they feast on animals not humans. Let the Right One In plays the game in a more traditional manner. When a vampire is exposed to direct sunlight they burst into flame and drinking human blood is de rigueur. Both films are based on popular novels. Let the Right One In gives good fang regarding creepiness and actual vampire stalking. Twilight doesn't suffer from walking the border of PG-13 violence, because there isn't a lot of slashing and slurping, and the fight at the end of the movie seems like a precursor to bigger skirmishes in bigger sequels. By contrast LTROI portrays its desire for blood with serious R rated mayhem. Both films depict vampires with youthful personas even though as creatures they are a hundred (or more) years old. Twilight's Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen has the sleekest eyebrows you've ever seen. The eyebrow sculpting budget on Twilight must've been a line item. He makes a reference to being bitten in the early 20th century, which makes him around a century in human years. Yet he has the rage of angst and the lust in his heart and his obsession for high schooler Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart) even gives him pause. The blood sucker in Let the Right One In is a young girl Eli (Lina Leandersson) who first appears without a coat on the playground gymnastic bars one snowy night. (It's Sweden, everything is cold and covered with snow.) Her object of attraction, trouble magnet Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), stabs a tree to take out agression against the bullies who hound him at school. You know where this is going, a Euro gothic My Bodyguard where intermittent scenes of horror action are punctuated by moments of alpha male school comeuppance. Eli has a minion who gathers blood for her and poses as her guardian. Don't we all need loving proxy parents to line our sun drenched windows with cardboard? Edward Cullen lives as an adopted ward with Dr. Cullen the head of the vampire clan (Peter Facinelli). Twilight injects moments of obvious mirth with a stone cold snicker. Let the RIght One In's humor lies buried in snowbanks yet its there, subliminally tickling our fancy. In a typical chilly moment Eli's subordinate subdues a victim in a park and ties them upside down from a tree to drain their blood. The scene is night but the vision is bright white snow and when a white standard poodle strolls up and starts watching the air becomes subversive. Let the Right One In wants to be taken seriously and gets the attention it demands. Evil tidings come in pretty packages. LTROI is simply more accomplished and leaves you chilled but wanting to know more about Eli and Oskar. Twilight seems more concerned with just being a pretty package.
The most striking aspect of The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (a five-CD box set) is how the performance of Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas exactly captured the phrasing and nuances of Thompson’s voice. If I didn’t know better I would say the recordings (Thompson dictated his travels and much of what would become portions of his books into a portable tape recorder.) were made by Depp himself, spoofing us as if he was the legend in making. Bill Murray also portrayed Thompson memorably in the 1980 Where the Buffalo Roam. The Gonzo Tapes lets us into the world of Thompson as he parties with and observes the habits of Hell’s Angels (CD 1). A crazy sounding flute or recorder being playing during the Las Vegas trip (complete on 2 CDs) puts the listener in the same disoriented haze as Thompson and his lawyer and partner in lunacy Lazlo. Any yes Benicio Del Toro nailed that baritone too. Hearing Thompson ramble on elicits grins but then the car radio blasts forth with some typical 70s top-40 pap like “Jesus Christ Superstar” and it transports you to the car with them on their demented ride. The set includes notes by Alex Gibney whose documentary from earlier this year (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson) utilized the Taco Stand segment, which is heard in its nutty entirety here. Original artwork by Ralph Steadman reminds one of the impact of Rolling Stone magazine in that era. If you received a phone call from Thompson inquiring about the American Dream what would you answer? Disc 4 includes Thompson’s sojourn to cover the Rumble in the Jungle (Ali-Foreman) in Kinshasa, Zaire while Disc 5 covers Fear and Loathing in Saigon. Listening to Thompson discuss assignments with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner reminds one how many stories he never bothered to finish. Despite his penchant for phoning in work Thompson does record himself taking the last commercial airliner leaving Vietnam before it fell to the North. The Gonzo Tapes beckons repeat listens, and if you’re familiar with Thompson’s books you’ll spot noticeable landmarks.
Remember in the movie Demolition Man where Sandra Bullock states: "All restaurants are Taco Bell." Well soon all movies will be 3-D. Bolt didn't need the third dimension to succeed on an adult entertainment level. It has a lot going on under the hood. The 3-D is definitely a bonus then. Although the visuals are such a natural fit you barely notice the effect save for one scene where Bolt swings out hanging for dear life on a ladder that becomes detached from the back of a train. This is your basic Disney animal adventure a la Incredible Journey done in CGI animated style. John Travolta voices Bolt but Susie Essman is my favorite as the smart alecy cat Mittens. Miley Cyrus briefly voices Penny, Bolt's owner, but was MIA for most of the film's cross country trip. Bolt is a TV star who doesn't realize he's actually animal talent and not a real life super canine. Kind of the opposite of premise of The Truman Show. When Bolt gets separated from his lair he kidnaps a cat (Mittens) and heads from the East Coast to the West Coast. Along the way the pair pick up Rhino, an enormously gung-ho hamster and fan of Bolt's show voiced by Mark Walton. The trio figuratively find themselves in situations that help heal Bolt's inner doubt. On a cosmic scale of cartoon features Bolt is in a league with lower level Pixar films, which is to say it ain't Toy Story but assuredly better product that other recent Disney family films like Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
