Every once in a while something really astonishing and fresh comes along and Thunder Road is both astonishing and fresh. It blew my mind! Jim Cummings deserves every accolade and more for this wonderful little micro-budget indie film. I'm a sucker for a good movie about mental illness. If you add in an element about parent/child bonds, family, or parenting alone then you've got me and I'll watch that movie. Thunder Road tackles loss, addiction, mental illness, masculinity, family bonds, and the stress of being a single-working parent, and yet somehow is a hilarious comedy. And it does all this without ever laughing at Officer Jim's mental breakdown. This film is filled with earnest love and pain and it balances all the feels and tackles tricky issues effortlessly. This is not a cringe comedy, it's all heart and soul. 5/5 MUST SEE! |
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Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the film adaptation of the musical play of the same name written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. This is the story of transperson, Hedwig Schmidt Robinson (internationally ignored song stylist), her escape from Communist East Berlin, her failed marriage to an American GI, her broken heart, and her desire for recognition when it comes to the success for her protege Tommy Gnosis. This is a very fun ride! If you haven't Hedwigged you need to GET ON THAT BANDWAGON!!! 5/5 Crazy Moon is a mid-80s NFB/Canadian Teen Romantic Comedy starring a very young Kiefer Sutherland. This movie is pretty charming and I remember loving it as a kid when it first made its rounds on TV. Crazy Moon is about Brooks, an offbeat young guy from a rich family who has his eccentricities--such as dressing from the 1930s and only listening to big band jazz, riding his motorcycle with a mannequin in the side car, and photographing dog shit (read: he's manic depressive)--who meets and falls in love with a deaf girl Anne. Anne is played by a young Vanessa Vaugh who is actually deaf. Other than seeing Crazy Moon on Canadian TV it's been pretty hard to find, I was delighted to catch it on the Sundance channel. Copies are now readily via Amazon and through the NFB itself. I'm not saying this is an earth shattering film, but it is a very charming Harold-and-Maudesque coming-of-age romantic comedy. 3.5/5 By no means am I reviewing Apocalypse Now after seeing it for the first time. I've seen the film many times, but I'm revisiting it once again. If I space it out right, by the time I rewatch this next time, it'll be like new all over again. I'm really surprised at how much seems new to me today. Strange. In any case, this film is genius. It's an absolute masterpiece, and if you've never seen it you should fix that immediately. If you don't know anything about Apocalypse Now, I guess I could at least say that it's essentially Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness retold as a Vietnam War picture. This is an important piece of American cinema. Do it. 5/5 Anomalisa is hands down, the best stop-motion animation film I have ever seen. This is an R-rated Charlie Kaufman film--Kaufman gave us Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Adaptation, so take that in mind and add stop-motion. And then, Anomalisa gets even weirder! I'd love to see an Oscar nod here, it would be the first R animated feature ever nominated. Anomalisa is based one a three person play, and so the film also includes only 3 voices, David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. The film takes place in a hotel in Cincinnati the night before a regional customer service convention. David Thewlis (whom I LOVE!) is Michael Stone, a public speaker and author/expert on customer service; Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Lisa, a conventioneer; and Tom Noonan is the voice of every other character: man, woman, child. This is an absolute must-see, laugh-out-loud hilarious, utterly kooky film. Do it. 5/5 Suburbia (Penelope Spheeris, US, 1983) Suburbia is a low-budget independent film by Penelope Spheeris (Decline of Western Civilization, Wayne's World). Suburbia is about a group of homeless punk kids in LA who are squatting in an abandoned suburban housing development. This is a stellar film about chosen family, community, punk ethos, poverty, and abuse. There are some terrific live performances throughout including TSOL and The Vandals. Keep your eyes open for baby Mike B "Flea". 5/5 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (US, 1989) Yes, this is one of my all-time favorite films. First of all, the message of the film is "Be Excellent to Each Other" and subsequently "Party On." I cannot disagree with this. Secondly, I have to admire that the simple fact that all of the historical personages represented speak in their proper languages makes the movie all the more brilliant. Socrates speaks Greek, Freud speaks German and English, Joan of Arc speaks French, and so on... This is a wholly enjoyable time for all ages. I have yet to get sick of this one. I've seen it hundreds of times. Bill and Ted are both exceptionally loveable and while their kinda dummies, there isn't a mean bone in this movie. Also, I love the dialogue. Bill and Ted tend to use big words in deliciously correct ways. This is a very fun, funny, warm, and kind-hearted film. 5/5. La Strada (Frederico Fellini, Italy, 1954) All my favorite Fellini's are the ones starring his wife Julietta Masina (check out Nights of Cabiria and Variety Lights). Subsequently these are his films that lean more heavily on the tradition of Italian Neo-Realism than his more Surreal films such as Satyricon and 8 1/2. Here, Masina is brilliant as Gelsomina--a young woman sold by her mother to a travelling sideshow strong-man, Zampano, played by Anthony Quinn. Gelsomina is forced to leave her life and follow Zampano on the road. He treats her absolutely horribly, but finally breaks away, goes out on her own, and finds her own path. This film is utterly beautiful and tragic. 5/5 |
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