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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES / Edouard Molinaro (1978)

August 31st, 2007 by Scott Marks

Bird Crap

La Cage aux folles (1978)

Directed by: Edouard Molinaro

Written by: Jean Poiret, Francis Veber

Genres: Comedy, Gay

Cast: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Claire Maurier, Rémi Laurent, Carmen Scarpitta, Benny Luke, Luisa Maneri, Michel Galabru, Venantino Venantini, Carlo Reali, Guido Cerniglia, Angelo Pellegrino

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Running Time: 100 min.

A gay night club owner and his cross-dressing lover are forced to play it straight when one of their sons brings his future in-laws home for a visit. Forced, hideously photographed and poorly directed farce that by some means managed to crack the mainstream. Perhaps it was because the film basically reiterated as many socially acceptable stereotypes as possible. Michel Serrault’s fey yelping is insufferable. Worth looking at if only to see the great strides that have been made in gay cinema over the years since this was released.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

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BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS / Russ Meyer (1970)

August 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

Rog & Russ

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

Directed by: Russ Meyer

Written by: Roger Ebert, Russ Meyer

Genres: Satire

Cast: Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John Lazar, Michael Blodgett, David Gurian, Edy Williams, Erica Gavin, Phyllis Davis, Harrison Page, Duncan McLeod, James Inglehart, Charles Napier, Henry Rowland, Princess Livingston

Aspect Ratio: cinemascope5.jpg

Running Time: 109 min.

This big budget, X-rated, major studio production sent many a bluenosed (and red-faced) executive at 2oth Century Fox off the deep end. Perhaps it’s because the director was the inimitable Russ Meyer, better known as King Leer or the Sergei Eisenstein of soft core porn. Long before he became the corporate spokesman for American film criticism, Roger Ebert wrote, and continues to take a lot of heat for, this audacious, absolutely hilarious social satire. (Any man who coined the phrase, “May you suck the black sperm of death” is a genius in my book!) One of the most critically maligned and misunderstood masterpieces of the 1970’s. Strap this one on! Makes a great double-feature with with the equally undervalued Showgirls (Fully Exposed Edition).

Rating: ★★★★★

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KPBS Film Club of the Air - August 29, 2007

August 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

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Appearing monthly on These Days, the Film Club of the Air features local film critics Beth Accomando and Scott Marks discussing films in San Diego theaters.

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David Lynch, King of Kong, No End in Sight and Colma
August 29, 2007
Tom Fudge: We start by reviewing a new documentary film about America’s involvement in Iraq. Many documentaries related to the Iraq War have examined part of the conflict, or one aspect of it. But No End in Sight takes on the whole thing. From the planning for the war to the multiple-year occupation, the movie provides facts and narrative. Many of the people interviewed were involved in the occupation. And many of them went in with good intentions, only to be alienated by top administration officials who were calling the shots. No End in Sight makes a convincing argument that our experience in Iraq is a story of lost opportunities and poor decisions.
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Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN Hits the Internet Before Movie Theatres

August 29th, 2007 by Scott Marks

So I’m having lunch at the only quality hot dog joint in San Diego and, as always, talking movies. One of the owners, we’ll call him “Buddy,” asks if I saw Rob Zombie’s take on the Halloween saga. Seeing that the film is pretty much “critic proof,” the studio refused to screen it until the day before it opens.

“I saw it,” “Buddy” tells me before breaking into a crap-eating grin. (People seem to take great delight in having seen a movie before I do. Poor guy hasn’t seen one Sam Fuller film and he’s tickled because he watched a new movie on his computer. Thank God the hot dogs are good!)

It seems that Buddy is privy to an internet site, he called it a “BitTorrent Tracker,” that makes new movies available to internet pirates, in some cases before they hit multiplexes.

I can’t tell you how many times rent-a-cops frisk me for photographic equipment just prior to screenings. My goal is to forget 90% of the films I see, not preserve them on my cell phone. These internet copies don’t come from critics any more than they do morons parked in the back row with a camcorder aimed at the screen. Are the studios in total denial? In the case of Halloween, the copy is a work print that could have only come from an insider.

Legend has it that when the mongrel sh*tberg’s E.T. opened at the Edens Theatre in
Northbrook, IL, there was a truck parked out back with a TeleCine tucked inside. As soon as reel one came off the projector it was brought to the truck and transferred to video.

This nonsense has been going on for decades and one question remains: Who in their right mind would want to see a video on TV when they could go to a theatre and watch it on a big screen with superior sound? I don’t care how good your home “theatre” is, it’s no match for the moviegoing experience.

One complaint that I constantly hear is how much it costs to take a family to the movies. If you’re the type of parent who would encourage their offspring to watch fuzzy video dupes over 35mm prints, you should have your kids taken away.

I asked “Buddy” for the name of the site, but he refused to cough it up in fear that I’d turn his ass in. Without throwing ”Buddy” under the bus, I’d love to see these bastards go down.

I’ll do the right thing, see it tomorrow night at the Edwards’ Mira Mesa and get back to you.

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INLAND EMPIRE / David Lynch (2007)

August 29th, 2007 by Scott Marks

David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE (2007)

INLAND EMPIRE (2007)

Written, Directed, Photographed & Edited by David Lynch

Starring: Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Peter J. Lucas & Jeremy Irons

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Running Time: 180 min.

Rating: ★★★★★

The best film of 2007 had its local premiere last week. The bad news, it was held in my living room.

Hot Rod played something like 25 screens across San Diego County. The new film by David Lynch, one of American cinema’s preeminent visionaries, opened strong in Estonia and Slovakia, but can’t get a week in the #5 Hillcrest. I’m all for Landmark’s “if it’s gay it plays” policy, but the unwatchable Cut-Sleeve Boys (one of the rare times that I didn’t make it through the first cue mark) gets a week while Inland Empire goes straight to home video!

I’d rather be Lynch-ed.

Not only did Inland Empire receive limited release in the States, poor Lynch couldn’t even convince a major video distributor to bite. Perversely, the film is being released by Rhino, a low-end nostalgia merchant responsible for DVD copies of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, They Saved Hitler’s Brain and Ed Wood’s Orgy of the Dead.

I have yet to crack the supplementary DVD. Hell, I needed at least a couple of viewings under my belt before putting pen to paper. If you are looking for solutions, you’ve come to the wrong place. Everything that follows is intended to enlighten or, even better, further confound.

Continue reading INLAND EMPIRE / David Lynch (2007)

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LOGGERHEADS / Tim Kirkman (2005)

August 28th, 2007 by Scott Marks

Kip Pardue in LOGGERHEADS (2005)

LOGGERHEADS

Written & Directed by Tim Kirkman

Starring: Kip Pardue, Michael Kelly, Tess Harper, Bonnie Hunt

Running Time: 95 min.

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Three seemingly unrelated stories set in North Carolina take place over the course of three consecutive years.

Kure (pronounced: Curie) Beach, 1999: While on his morning jog, George (Michael Kelly), a local motel manager, spots drifter Mark (Kip Pardue) protecting a turtle’s nest. Sympathetic to learn that Mark is HIV+ (and dumbstruck by the young man’s beauty) George takes him in.

Eden, 2000: Robert (Chris Sarandon) and Elizabeth (Tess Harper) are the town minister and his wife. He frets that the new neighbors are Mexican (or worse — gay) while she empties a half-a-can of air freshener every time she sneaks a cigarette.

Asheville, 2001: Grace (Bonnie Hunt), a rental car agent, searches the eyes of a young customer for the son she gave up for adoption. Breaking rank from the mother she was forced to move back in with (Michael Learned), Grace quits her job to search for her boy.

Continue reading LOGGERHEADS / Tim Kirkman (2005)

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