Since the big red guy first appeared in John Byrne’s Next Men #21 back in 1993 (and I am proud to say that I read that issue when it came out!), I have been hooked on Hellboy.  The creation of writer-artist Mike Mignola, Hellboy is, on its simplest level, about a monster who keeps the world safe from all the other monsters.  But there’s so much more to it than that!  To borrow some text from the back of the recent Hellboy Companion, “since 1994, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy has been one of the most evocative comics on the stands, slowly revealing a bizarre world of Victorian occult societies, prehistoric gods, arcane Nazi experiments, and layer upon layer of enigmas.”  Yeah!  Beautifully illustrated, very literate and a heck of a lot of fun, Mignola’s various Hellboy limited series that have been released over the years are some of the best American comic books out there.

For those of you who may have discovered Hellboy through Guillermo del Toro’s two recent films, there are so many great comics out there for you to enjoy.  Seed of Destruction is the first miniseries, and while one can see that Mignola is still feeling things out, this is a great introduction to the world of Hellboy.  The first movie drew a lot of its inspiration from this tale.  But Hellboy really starts to become the Hellboy that I know and love in the next bunch of (superior) stories.  First there’s Wake the Devil, in which a murder in a wax museum leads Hellboy to vampires, Nazis, and possibly the end of the world.  Then there’s The Right Hand of Doom, which is probably my favorite Hellboy collection.  This volume actually contains a ton of terrific short stories (most notably the classic “Pancakes,” about young Hellboy in 1947 eating breakfast), and two tales that are absolutely to the Hellboy saga: “The Right hand of Doom” and “Box Full of Evil,” both of which shed a lot of light on questions of Hellboy’s origin and ultimate destiny (storylines also hinted at in del Toro’s two movies — in particular the scene with the Angel of Death in Hellboy 2).  All that back-story rushes front and center in The Conquerer Worm, which to me is one of Mignola’s masterpieces.  A remnant from the Nazi space program causes trouble in present day, as a space capsule launched back in 1939, containing something very, very bad, makes its return to Earth.  This series also introduces one of the great characters in the Hellboy world, the enigmatic World War II hero Lobster Johnson, whose full story remains untold (although we’ve gotten a LOT more information lately).

Those are, to me, the “classic” Hellboy tales, the ones that made me fall in love with the goofy guy and all the weird, wonderful fish-men, homunculi, and other strange folk inhabiting these stories.  But part of the fun of Hellboy comics in the past few years is the way Mignola, and an increasing number of talented collaborators, have been able to broaden that world.

The end of Conquerer Worm saw Hellboy at the same point as he was at the end of the second movie (albeit due to ENTIRELY different circumstances) — quitting the BPRD.  This allowed Mignola to launch a new series of miniseries focusing on all the other characters in the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), struggling to get by and keep the world safe without their biggest heavy-hitter.  The first two collections of B.P.R.D. tales are OK, but the series found its footing with Plague of Frogs, due in no small part to Guy Davis’ becoming the regular artist.  A menace dating back to the very first Hellboy mini-series comes back in a big way, and Abe Sapien finally begins to learn just who and what he is.  The answers are very very strange, and wonderfully intriguing — though quite diffficult for poor Abe to handle.  The story continued to build over several mini-series that followed, each one better than the last:

The Dead — In which the B.P.R.D. get a new team leader (Captain Ben Daimio, a man who was once mysteriously dead for three days) and a new headquarters (complete with a creepy guy buried in the sub-basement with a rather dangerous idea about how to open a gate to the kingdom of heaven).

The Black Flame — In which the B.P.R.D.’s war with the frog creatures explodes across the world, resulting in terrible devastation.  Liz Sherman begins having awful visions; another Nazi menace rears its head; and the team suffers a devastating loss.  This story is one of the best of the B.P.R.D. run, and served to let readers know that Mignola and his collaborators were not messing around with this series!!  In many ways, The Black Flame made B.P.R.D. (rather than the continuing Hellboy miniseries), the centerpieces of the ongoing Hellboy story.  In my eyes, at least!

The Universal Machine — In which we learn fascinating tidbits about the pasts of Daimio, Liz, and Johann Kraus; and B.P.R.D. agent Kate Corrigan considers making a dangerous bargain to restore life to the colleague who fell in The Black Flame.  The epilogue illustrated by Mignola is heartbreaking.

Garden of Souls — In which the remaining details of Abe Sapien’s origin come to horrifying light; the mystery of Captain Ben Daimio deepens; Liz’s nightmarish visions worsen; a bunch of Victorian men preserved in bizarre technological outfits plot the end of the world; and the key to salvation rests in the shrivelled hands of an Egyptian mummy, restored to life back in the 1800’s.  Wonderfully bizarre and filled to overflowing with innumerable fantastical ideas and images on every page, this series rivals The Black Flame in my mind as the highlight of this series.  There is no other comic like this out there!

Killing Ground — I thought Garden of Souls was the climax to the B.P.R.D. storyline, but things keep building to a fever pitch in this series, in which a violent creature breaks loose in B.P.R.D. headquarters and almost every character finds him or herself at an emotional turning point.  One of the wonders of this series is the way each chapter seems to have its own tone — and this one is definitely horror.  This is one of the best “page-turners” of the bunch, as things quickly turn very ugly for our heroes.  It is also the chapter, along with Garden of Souls, in which so many of the seeds of story-lines planted in earlier series really come to fruition.  And the conclusion is jaw-dropping, both for its emotional punch and for the stunning return of the last character I ever expected to see.  

The Warning — Coming out as we speak, in which we learn more about Lobster Johnson (well, a little more, anyways) and also about the man haunting Liz’s dreams; and little red gnomes release enormous ancient robots on Munich, Germany.  

There have also been a variety of other mini-series and one-shots released in the past few years, all of which are a lot of fun.  The most notable are B.P.R.D.: 1946, in which we learn how the Bureau was formed in the ashes of the second World War; Abe Sapien: The Drowning, a story about Abe’s first solo mission for the B.P.R.D. that connects in striking ways with his origin as revealed in the B.P.R.D. series; and Lobster Johnson: Iron Prometheus, which starts as a fun-filled pulpy romp about this hero fighting Nazis in the 1930s, then becomes something much more in the closing pages.  All of these are terrific series in their own right, but what’s really incredible about them is how each serves as another piece in the every-growing puzzle of Mignola’s Hellboy world.  The villain in Lobster Johnson, for instance, at first seems to be nothing more than an interesting foil for the adventurous Lobster… but attentive readers will note the connection with the mysterious figure who has been haunting Liz Sherman in the last several YEARS worth of B.P.R.D. series. There’s nothing obvious here — no editorial notes, nothing to help underline the connections — but suddenly an attentive reader is rewarded with some huge answers.  (And, of course, lots more questions!)  Same thing with a creature seen in a vision by Abe at the end of The Drowning.  In the context of that particular series, it seems a throw-away detail… just one more bit of weirdness.  But for those of us who have been following Abe’s story over in B.P.R.D., its a staggering AH HA moment.  

So what are you waiting for?  If you enjoyed either of the two Hellboy movies, there’s an enormous universe of great stories out there!!!  Give one of ‘em a try, and I guarantee you won’t look back.

A trailer for the fifth and penultimate season of Lost has made its way onto the internet.  Check it out here.  Nothing earth-shattering, but its enough to get my anticipation building for the return of the show in ‘09.

Speaking of building anticipation, some new footage from Watchmen aired recently on Spike TV and is now, of course, up on YouTube.  Check it out here.  The first half is mostly familiar to those of us who pored over the amazing first trailer, but the second half is mostly new stuff.  Visually, this footage is incredible — Zack Snyder has really nailed a number of iconic moments from the acclaimed Graphic Novel.  Will the film live up to our hopes?  We’ll find out on March 6th…

Finally, due to nothing more than my own incompetence, yesterday’s cartoon (recapping Pirates of the Caribbean 2) went up pretty late in the day, so if you missed it just click on Comic Archive to check it out.

As I’ve mentioned once or twice in recent posts, over the past few weeks I’ve been making my way through a whole slew of films by one of the best writers working in the film industry today: David Mamet.  Mamet’s works are always known for their intricate plots — many of his films revolve around some sort of con.  He is also known for the distinct style of his dialogue — a fast-paced back-and-forth, rat-a-tat rhythm that, in the hands of a talented actor, is pure gold.

After purchasing Redbelt on DVD, I decided to go back and revisit several earlier Mamet works.  This is in no way a complete trip through Mamet’s work.  In fact, let me first start by telling you a bit about two films which I didn’t re-watch this past month.  Not because I didn’t care for them — quite the opposite.  These are two of my favorite films, and they’ve been in my DVD collection for years.

Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992) — Unlike all the other movies that I’m about to list, this film was written by Mamet but directed by someone else: James Foley.  But like all the Mamet-directed films, the appeal is not due to the directing.  Its the acting, and the beautiful, beautiful words.  (Can you believe I’ve just described as beautiful the incredibly curse-laden dialogue in this film??)  Take a gander at this cast:  Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, and let’s not forget Alec Baldwin.  Baldwin is in only one scene, but he gives possibly the greatest movie monologue of all time.  There are more memorable lines in his one scene than there are in most entire films.  (One of my favorites: “Only one thing counts in this world: get them to sign on the line that is dotted.”  And, of course, there’s the title of this piece.)  The film follows one night and one morning in the lives of a group of real-estate con men.  Many have described it as a modern Death of a Salesman, and I’m not one to disagree.  Jack Lemmon’s sad-sack Shelley “the machine” Levine is such an iconic character he’s even been written into The Simpsons (as the hapless loser Gil).  Al Pacino is the man that Shelley was twenty years ago — a young, slick salesman at the top of his game.  (”You ever take a dump made you feel like you’d just slept for twelve hours?”)  Ed Harris is the angry and profane Dave Moss.  (”What is this, courtesy class?”)  Alan Arkin is the quietly despairing George Aaronow.  (Are we just talking about this or are we talking about this?”)  And Kevin Spacey is the man in charge of the office.  (”Will you GO TO LUNCH?”)  Anyone who hasn’t seen this film is probably totally confused by the various quotations I’ve been inserting into my synopsis — while anyone who HAS seen the film is probably grinning at the amazing moments those quotes are from.  This film is a masterpiece, and anyone who calls themselves a fan of movies needs to have seen it.  One of the best.

House of Games (1987) — This is the first film Mamet directed, and its a doozy.  Psychologist Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse) tries to help a young patient get out of a gambling debt and winds up swept up in the world of petty con men by the charismatic and mysterious Mike (Joe Mantegna).  Like most Mamet films, this is a fairly small film.  Rather than large, explosive action scenes, Mamet is able to draw great tension and drama from just a few people in a small room, whether they’re sitting around a poker table or meeting in a hotel room.  There are some great scenes that demonstrate various “short” cons, such as the smooth way that Mike scams money out of a young military officer (William H. Macy).  (In the terrific Criterion Collection DVD, Mamet gives credit to Ricky Jay — who appears in this film and many others by Mamet — for helping him learn about these sorts of con games.)  And, of course, the entire film is an example of a “long” con.  Great stuff.

OK, so here now are the films that I did check out recently:

The Spanish Prisoner (1997) — Joe (Campbell Scott) has invented a “process” that he believes will make millions for his bosses, but he is beginning to feel like they’re going to cut him out of the financial windfalls that are around the corner.  He meets a wealthy stranger (Steve Martin), and though they come from very different worlds the two become friends.  Only this is a David Mamet film and so things are not quite what they seem, as all the characters in the film circle around Joe’s mysterious “process.”  Steve Martin is really terrific in this nefarious role, an unusual turn for him.  Rebecca Pidgeon plays a young secretary in Joe’s office who becomes smitten with him and quickly drawn into the situation.  Ricky Jay is Joe’s partner George Lang, and Felicity Huffman plays FBI agent Pat McCune.  Joe’s “process” is one of the most striking MacGuffins in all of Mamet’s films.  (A MacGuffin — a term either invented by or at least popularized by Alfred Hitchcock — is a plot device motivates the characters or advances the story, but about which the details are of little to no importance.)  We never learn anything about what the heck Joe’s “process” is, and it doesn’t matter one whit.  What matters is that everyone wants it, and our enjoyment of the various cons and mind-games the various characters around Joe employ in their attempts to get it.  Although I find the ending a bit abrupt, this is one of my favorite Mamet films, and it’ll keep you guessing right up until those closing moments.

State and Main (2000) — Hollywood invades a small town as the cast and crew of the movie-in-the-making “The Old Mill” come to a quaint little town in Vermont to shoot their big-budget movie.  A funny and biting story about a clash of cultures, this film thankfully doesn’t fall into the simplistic cliche of small-town USA good and Hollywood bad.  No, pretty much EVERYONE we meet is flawed in their own way!  William H. Macy is the director Walt Price, willing to do whatever it takes to get his movie made.  Alec Baldwin is his star, Bob Barrenger, a man with a taste for liquor and young girls.  David Paymer is producer Marty Rossen, brought in to knock heads when the ingenue Claire Wellesley, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, refuses to take her shirt off for a love scene.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is the idealistic writer watching his script get torn apart by the realities of movie-making.  (He is asked to find a way to make his movie, “The Old Mill,” work in a town without a mill of any kind, old or otherwise.)  On the part of the townspeople, there is Ann (Rebecca Pidgeon), who quickly falls for Philip Seymour’s Hoffman, and Doug Mackenzie (Clark Gregg), her former beau who sees these Hollywood interlopers as his ticket to a political career. State and Main is a very funny look at all the little sacrifices (moral and otherwise!) that go into making movies.  One of Mamet’s most comic films, its a real winner.

Heist (2001) — Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) has been working with Bobby (Delroy Lindo), “Pinky” (Ricky Jay) and his young wife Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon) pulling heists for years.  But when their fence Mickey (Danny DeVito) stiffs them on their latest job, they’re forced to take on the high-risk “Swiss Job” with Mickey’s nephew Jimmy Silk (the great Sam Rockwell, from Galaxy Quest and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) along for the ride.  Needless to say, things don’t go smoothly, and a series of crosses and double-crosses quickly follow, as everyone scrambles to get away with the money.  There’s a lot of fun to be had here, and Gene Hackman is a terrific addition to Mamet’s regular ensemble.  But there are a few things in the story that don’t quite track.  (Such as what exactly is it that goes wrong that results in Pinky’s getting caught by Mickey’s men?  Why didn’t the otherwise brilliant Joe see that coming?)

Spartan (2004) — Val Kilmer plays Scott, a highly skilled and tough as nails black ops specialist who gets drawn into the shocking kidnapping of the daughter of a highly-ranked U.S. government official (possibly the President, although the movie never specifies exactly.)  Scott quickly discovers that there is a much larger, much uglier nasty story going on.  I sort of think of this movie as the dark-side companion piece to the kidnapping of the President’s daughter story that ended the fourth season of The West Wing!  Like Gene Hackman before him, this is Kilmer’s first and last foray into Mamet, but like Hackman he is terrific.  Kilmer is calm, cool, and incredibly dangerous.  Many familiar faces appear:  William H. Macy is the chief-of-staff to the non-named U.S. official; Clark Gregg is the agent heading the investigation when Scott is brought on board; and Ed O’Neill (Married… With Children, The Spanish Prisoner) makes a brief but important appearance as the head of the agency.  The film also stars Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher, Miracle at St. Anna) and Tia Texada as young, idealistic soldiers who get drawn into the mess along with Scott.  Like Heist, this is perhaps a “lesser” Mamet work, but its still rather terrific.  The twisty, turny tale really moves…and like most Mamet films, no punches are pulled.  This film also epitomizes the interesting way in which Mamet stages his action.  Or rather, in the way he DOESN’T stage it, as Mamet often cuts AROUND the action.  I took notice, on this re-watching, of an early scene in which Scott watches Derek Luke wrestle with another young soldier.  We see the two men lunge towards one another, but their bodies quickly carry them off-camera, and while we hear the sound effects of their struggle, the camera focuses on Scott and the other men watching.  Some might criticize Mamet from not actually showing us that action, but I found it to be almost Shakespearean the way much of the action takes place off-screen.  Mamet is more concerned with the AFTERMATH of action than with the action itself.

Redbelt (2008) — Mamet’s most recent film.  Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity, Inside Man, American Gangster) plays Mike Terry, a highly-skilled Martial Arts instructor who, because he refuses to fight in prize bouts, is having trouble finding the money to keep his instructional studio open.  When he comes to the aid of Hollywood star Chet Frank (Tim Allen) in a bar, things seem to start turning his way.  But not for long, of course!  Mamet regulars Joe Mantegna, Rebecca Pidgeon, David Paymer, and Ricky Jay are all on-hand, as are Emily Mortimer (fragile-boned Phoebe on 30 Rock) and Alice Braga (I Am Legend).  In contrast to his previous films, Mamet doesn’t shy away here from giving us, on-screen, some bone-crunching fights.  But, as always, it is the snappy dialogue and the intricate plot that are the real stars.  If the film has a flaw, its that the plot might be a bit TOO intricate.  I’ve seen the film twice now, and I am still mystified by some of the twists.  (Spoilers here… When exactly did Mike’s girlfriend (Alice Braga)  get in on the con?  Did Chet and his wife truly try to scam her out of her money, and that’s when she made the decision in order to try to get the money needed to pay off her debts?  OR were Chet and his wife not involved at all, and it was Joe Mantegna’s character who organized everything?  OR was everything she told Mike about Chet and his wife’s scam ITSELF a lie, a way to get Mike to agree to fight because he wouldn’t unless she was in jeopardy? I am confused.)

Whew!  That’s a lot of Mamet films!  But, as I wrote above, this is by no means a comprehensive coverage of all of his works.  I didn’t re-watch Homicide (one of Mamet’s greatest works, the story of Jewish cop Bobby Gold) because, believe it or not, it is NOT AVAILABLE on DVD.  What a crime.  I skipped a bunch of famous works that Mamet wrote but didn’t direct  such as The Untouchables, Wag the Dog, and The Edge.  (Although having just read What Just Happened?, which spends a lot of time dealing with the making of The Edge, I definitely want to go out and re-watch that one soon.)  There are also a bunch of Mamet movies that I don’t own and have never seen:  Things Change, Oleanna, and The Winslow Boy. Its not for lack of interest — I just haven’t gotten around to seeing those films yet.  But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll get to them one of these days!  And I’ll tell you all about them when I do.

Holy cow!  Paramount has FINALLY released some stills from J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek re-launch/re-boot/re-make whatever the heck it is!

Above is a shot of most of the crew.  From left to right, its Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Mr. Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura.  For a larger version, click here.  This is a really exciting shot, as the actors all look great.  I love those uniforms!  They really capture the “vibe” of the colorful uniforms from the Original Series, while not looking ridiculous.  

Click here to see a great shot of Spock getting all “Vulcan death grip” on someone (is that Kirk?).  Cue the Amok Time music!  (Let me say again that those uniforms look great.  You can really see the textures in this shot.)

Or click here to see a shot of Kirk and McCoy on the bridge of the Enterprise!  This is probably the most controversial shot, as while the bridge looks cool it doesn’t bear a lot of resemblance to the classic Enterprise bridge from the Original Series.  It is more similar to the sleeker, white and gray bridge of the Enterprise from the movies… although this version is a lot funkier.

OR click here to see the villainous Romulan, played by Eric Bana.  (Note that you can clearly see his pointed ears, which were absent from the first head-shot that was released last summer.)

Or click here to see… I don’t know what, exactly.  Looks like Kirk crash-landed on some sort of icy something.  (Is that some sort of escape-pod?  It is labeled NCC 1701…)

Or, finally, you can click here to see the U.S.S. Kelvin running into some trouble.  (Don’t know what this ship is or how it figures into the plot, and I’m happy not knowing for now.)  They are still not letting us see a full-on shot of what a Constitution class starship (like, of course, the U.S.S. Enterprise) is going to look like in this movie, but from this picture the exterior seems to be more similar to the Enterprise from the movies than that of the Original Series (because of the look of the hull plating, and the lettering).  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Great stuff!!  Now when will we get to see a full trailer???

Here are some of the DVDs that have been spinning recently in the Edelglass abode:

Recount — This HBO film chronicles the tumultuous 36 days that followed the contested 2000 Presidential election.  The cast is stupendous across the board:  Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, Bob Balaban is Ben Ginsberg, Ed Begley Jr. is David Boies, Laura Dern is Katherine Harris, John Hurt is Warren Christopher, Dennis Leary is Michael Whouley, Tom Wilkinson is James Baker, and Mitch Pileggi (A.D. Skinner!!) is Bill Daley.  For those of you out there who followed every minute of this political morass, most of those names are probably very familiar to you.  I’ll also add that Derek Cecil (Push, Nevada) plays Democratic lawyer and my former camp counselor, Jeremy Bash.  Although the film is at times heartbreaking to watch for a Democrat like myself, it is a terrifically well-told tale.  There’s a lot of very detailed information covered in its under two hour run-time, but the film never becomes a boring talking-heads history class.  Its dramatic and extraordinarily well-paced, bouncing back and forth between the Democratic and Republican camps trying to bring home the election for their candidate.  

The Band’s Visit — An Egyptian band (the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra) arrives in Israel to play at a cultural event, but find themselves stranded in the tiny Israeli town of Petach Tikvah.  Stuck there for the night, the film follows the different members of the band as they interact (or don’t interact) with the local Jews, and vice versa.  This is a quiet film.  There is no great action — nor is there loud conflict or histrionics.  Instead, its a small, personal story about a group of Egyptians and a group of Israelis, each with their own problems and demons, and their efforts to find common ground for one lonely night.  Nobody LEARNS A BIG LESSON or FALLS MADLY IN LOVE and I respect the film for that.  This is a movie about ordinary people leading ordinary lives.  Occasionally it might be a little TOO slow for some tastes, but its worth a viewing.

The Good German — My wife Steph recently read the book (by Joseph Kanon), so we decided to check out the film.  I’d wanted to see the movie when it came out in 2007, but never got to it, so I was excited to give it a try.  Unfortunately, it was a disappointment.  The film boasts a top-notch cast that includes George Clooney, Tobey Maguire, and Cate Blanchett, but I never engaged with the story being told.  Part of the reason for that may be that the film has been molded to the style of a 1940’s film like Casablanca — in terms of the style of music, editing, etc.  That sounds like a neat idea, and the black-and-white photography is quite beautiful.  But ultimately, I think those choices keep the viewer at a distance.  It takes an incredible film — like a Casablanca — to overcome those old-style devices to remain interesting to a modern audience, and this film is no Casablanca.  

Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall — I wrote about both these movies on this site when they were originally released last spring, and they both hold up just as well upon second viewings.  Iron Man is terrific fun, striking a perfect balance of humor and action.  It also features some astounding visual effects, from small details such as all the wonderful computer interfaces in Tony Stark’s home, to several great action set-pieces like Iron Man’s encounter with a pair of military jets and the armor-on-armor battle at the end with the Iron Monger.  And that Nick Fury post-credits scene is just fantastic.  I cannot WAIT until the next Marvel Universe movie adventures, coming in 2010.  As for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, that too is great fun.  The film is a riot, a parade of funny, funny people:  Jason Segal (Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, How I Met Your Mother), British comedian Russell Brand, Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, Superbad), Jack McBrayer (30 Rock), Jonah Hill (Superbad), Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, The 40 year Old Virgin, Anchorman), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes), and Mila Kunis (That 70’s Show, Family Guy).  I watched the extended version on the DVD, which is only about 5 minutes longer than the theatrical cut.  There are some small additions, mostly in the early pre-Hawaii part of the film, as well as a little extra nudity during Peter’s (Jason Segal) attempts to get over Sarah Marshall by having a lot of meaningless sex.  If you missed this comedy when it was first released (and I think a lot of people did), be sure to check it out on DVD.

Vicky Christina Barcelona — Yes, like most of you I prefer Woody Allen’s “earlier, funnier” works.  But this is, I think, one of the strongest movies that Woody has written & directed in the last decade and a half.  Vicky Christina Barcelona follows two girls, Vicky (Rebecca Hall, who must have felt bad at being left off all the posters) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) on a summer holiday in Spain.  The girls are close friends but are very different in nature: Vicky is practical and responsible, while Christina is more spontaneous and emotional.  Their lives quickly become entwined with that of strapping Spanish artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) and his ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz).

While Johansson has appeared in several recent Woody Allen films, Hall, Bardem and Cruz are all welcome additions to Woody’s repertoire of actors.  Bardem and Cruz, in particular, bring an energy that’s been missing from many of Mr. Allen’s recent works.  Indeed, they both play characters (and sympathetic characters, at that) that are quite different from the more intellectual romantic leads that characterize Woody Allen movies.  There isn’t really an Alvy Singer to be found here.  (The closest approximation would be Vicky’s fiancee Doug, who is depicted not as a hero but as someone rather boring and close-minded.)  While we’re blessed to have a new Woody Allen film almost once a year, sometimes his films can seem to blend together.  (For instance, while many loved Match Point, I couldn’t stop comparing it to what I saw as the similar but superior earlier film, Crimes and Misdemeanors.)  But Vicky Christina Barcelona is quite a unique creation, unlike any previous Woody Allen film, and I really enjoy it for that.

It’s not perfect.  I didn’t care too much for the use of narration throughout the film, which seemed in many cases to spell out for the audience events and motivations that could more easily and elegantly been shown to us through the action.  And as with most stories of love triangles (or, in this case, a love rectangle), I found the set-up to be of more interest than the resolution.  But still, this is a strong new work from Woody Allen that I recommend.

Towelhead — I adore American Beauty, so when I heard that Alan Ball (the author of that film), had a new movie that he was writing and, for the first time, directing, I was immediately interested.  Towelhead tells the story of Jasira (Summer Bishil), a 13 year-old Arab-American girl.  At the start of the film, Jasira’s mother (Maria Bello) sends her to Houston, Texas, to live with her father Rifat (Peter Marcdissi), a strict man of Lebanese descent.  With the adults around her flawed and troubled — and that includes the flirtatious next-door neighbor and army-reservist Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) — Jasira has to find her own way through encounters with racism and her growing sexuality.  

The performances are terrific across the board.  Summer Bishil is phenomenal in the lead role.  She’s in every scene, and she is able to walk the fine line between innocence and adulthood necessary for the character.  Exchart is also excellent — both likable and intensely unlikable.  And I shouldn’t forget Toni Collette as one of the few positive adult role-models in Jasira’s life.

Right from our first meeting with Jasira, in which she is in the middle of a troubling encounter with her mom’s boyfriend Barry (Chris Messina), it is apparent that this is not a movie that is going to pull any punches in terms of its frank depiction of sexual issues.  This makes Towelhead a powerful film, although one that at times can be difficult to watch.  There are some moments of great humor to be found in the film, although while American Beauty had a balance of humor and unpleasantness, here the focus is definitely on the moments of unpleasantness.  Its certainly a movie I’ve been thinking about since I saw it.  

Religulous — Talk about a movie I’ve been thinking about ever since I saw it!  Comedian Bill Maher travels around asking people of all faiths (Christians, Jews, and Muslims) probing questions about their beliefs.  Maher is an outspoken agnostic who does not understand how otherwise intelligent, rational people are able to accept the many outlandish concepts found in religion.  (A talking snake an a man who lived in a fish are two famous stories that Maher refers to repeatedly, quite incredulously.)  His strategy through much of the film is to talk to all sorts of different people — both every-day folks on the street, as well as a number of different religious leaders — and basically step back and watch them squirm as they find themselves either unable or unwilling to answer his questions.

For much of its running time, the film is hysterical.  Watching person after person find themselves completely flummoxed by Maher’s simple, direct questioning is a riot.  Maher is almost never mean-spirited, which helps his point.  He comes across as someone who simply REALLY WANTS TO UNDERSTAND just why the heck all these people believe the things that they believe.  

The most controversial part of the film is probably the closing ten minutes, in which Maher launches into a rant, set to apocalyptic imagery and music, that basically sums up his reasons for making this film.  He finds that the tremendous baggage associated with religion — all the wars, death, and hatred carried out in its name, by people using religious beliefs as an excuse for the most vile, abhorrent behavior — far outweighs any good that has come from it.  This finale might make people who have been laughing along with the film sit up and say “whoa, I’m not sure I agree with that.”  (I was one of those people.)  But I can’t and won’t discount Maher’s arguments either.  Whether you passionately agree with him, passionately disagree, or find yourself somewhere in the middle, this is an extremely thought-provoking film, and I love it for that.  It is also, as I wrote above, very very funny as well as breathtakingly fearless in the way Maher goes after one of the most sacred of sacred cows here in America: organized religion.  

Definitely a film not to be missed.

After my lengthy series of posts about Star Trek novels from last month, I bet people think that’s all I read.  And, its true, sci-fi novels make up the bulk of my regular reading list.  But every now and then I do branch out, and I’d like to share several great books I’ve recently read that peak behind the scenes of Hollywoodland.

What Just Happened?, by Art Linson — Mr. Linson has been a producer in Hollywood for a few decades now, and this book covers a period of several years in the late ’90s in which he went to work for 20th Century Fox and proceeded to produce a large number of bombs.  Now, did these movies bomb because of bad luck and ridiculous studio politics and lack of support (as Mr. Linson contends), or is Linson just bereft of talent?  Well, I don’t know the man, so I can’t really judge.  But either way, this book is relentlessly entertaining as Linson takes us through the making of several movies that, to put it gently, did not do well.  Linson is a good storyteller, and in the book he focuses on anecdotes — putting the reader right in the middle of a series of hilarious (and painful for the people involved in them) situations.  We join Linson as he tries to deal with Alec Baldwin who, tapped to play the young and handsome photographer in the David Mamet-scripted The Edge, shows up to the set overweight and bearing an enormous mountain-man beard which he refuses to shave.  We see him trying to respond when studio head Tom Rothman asserts that they absolutely positively cannot cast Gwyneth Paltrow in Great Expectations because she has no chin.  We see him flummoxed the day he finds out that a central scene in that movie, that of a young man sketching his female paramour in the nude, is also a centerpiece of another soon-to-be-released Fox movie, James Cameron’s Titanic.  And we’re right there with him the first time he and David Fincher screen Fight Club for a room full of horrified Fox execs.  

If there’s any weakness to the book, its the framing device that Linson uses for these anecdotes — that of a series of lunches he has with a former studio head.  There are some funny interactions between these two, but each time the book cut back to their lunches, I kept thinking “let’s get back to the real stories!”  Despite this, Linson’s book is really engaging — and at less than 200 pages, you’ll breeze right through it.  Its a lot of fun.

By the way, this book is being adapted into a film starring Robert DeNiro.  (This is very amusing, since in the book Linson makes a number of references to his friendship with DeNiro, and to his many failed attempts to get DeNiro to star in one of his pictures.)  Two trailers have been released — you can see them here and here.  It looks from the trailer like the movie is a fictionalized story of the making of a film that incorporates many of the real-life stories that Linson detailed in his book.  By the way, they’ve also released the version of the Alec Baldwin beard-shaving argument, in which it is Bruce Willis who is refusing to trim his locks.  Check that out here.

Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson’s Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing, by Jeffrey Stepakoff — Since Dawson’s Creek isn’t exactly the type of TV show that I watch (to put it mildly), one wouldn’t think that this book would be of any interest to me.  But there’s much more to this book than just stories from the Creek.   It is partly a memoir of Stepakoff’s twenty years as a TV writer, freelancing scripts as well as spending several seasons on staff at TV shows as varied as The Wonder Years, Sisters, and eventually Dawson’s Creek, and partly a history of the TV industry during that time.  We first meet Stepakoff as a completely inexperienced college graduate who heads to LA right at the start of what he describes as a Hollywood gold-rush for writers, in which the studios began to throw huge amounts of money at any writer they felt had a hint of buzz.  We follow his early efforts at writing spec scripts, getting an agent, and finally winding up as a staff writer on The Wonder Years.  Stepakoff takes us through the explosion of writers in the late nineties and the collapse of the market for writers in the early aughts, as the number of writers all competing for a limited number of staff positions on TV shows reached its breaking point at the same time as the networks began having great success with reality programming that did not require highly-paid union writers.  Stepakoff balances stories of many of his bizarre and wonderful experiences working for various shows with a detailed but easy to understand description of the various ins-and-outs of the industry.  This includes details about the salaries available for writers at various levels of the staff writers’ totem pole, the way studio and network politics can impact the quality of a new or established series, and the structure of the Hollywood year from pilot season onward.  

Stepakoff is a skilled writer, and he is able to write well about various background topics (salaries, contracts, etc.) that might otherwise seem dry.  And he has lead quite an interesting life for the last twenty years, working on a number of successful and not-so-successful shows, so he doesn’t have to work too hard to make his stories interesting.  I will admit that there were some times, when he would go into great detail about the enormous amount of money he was making as a “baby writer” in Hollywood, that I started to lose my connection with his stories.  How could I empathize with someone making such an insane amount of money??  But the exorbitant sums thrown at young writers in the ’90s is an important part of the rise-and-fall-and-hopefully-rise-again story of writers in Hollywood that Stepakoff is telling, so I suppose those details are important.  Overall, its a great work.  I’ll definitely be paying attention for his name as I read  the credits for current and upcoming shows.

After reading What Just Happened? and Billion-Dollar Kiss, I decided to revisit one of my very favorite works about adventures in Hollywood:

Fortune and Glory, by Brian Michael Bendis — Mr. Bendis has become, over the past few years, one of the pre-eminent writers working in comic books today.  He’s one of the top stars at Marvel Comics, responsible for writing books such as The Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, the current company-wide crossover Secret Invasion, and many others.  Bendis started out in the world of independent publishing, writing and illustrating several (really great) black-and-white crime comics: Goldfish, Jinx, Torso, and others.  Fortune and Glory is a graphic novel written and drawn by Bendis (it was originally published as a three-issue series by Oni Press in 1999-2000), that follows his experiences trying to get his series Goldfish (and, later, his series Torso) made into movies, in hilarious detail.

Well, needless to say if you’re thinking to yourself, I don’t remember seeing Goldfish or Torso playing at my local google-plex, well, that’s ‘cuz they never got made.  (Maybe someday???  One hopes!!)  But the story of how these films sort-of-almost-nearly got made is the subject of this fall-on-the-floor-laughing work.  From Bendis’ opening explanation of what it means to be in alternative comics (”alternative to what?  I don’t know…alternative to popular?”), to his initial contacts with Hollywood (”Pauly Shore is Goldfish!”), his attempts to pitch Goldfish (”Is this one of those comic books?  Man, I hate those comic books!”), his attempts to pitch Torso (”This Elliot Ness.  Who owns him?”), and lots more fun and ridiculous goings-on in between, this is a tough work to put down.  (It’s also got a terrific title.)

If Billion-Dollar Kiss helped me understand why there are a lot of crappy TV shows out there, then Fortune and Glory helps me understand why there are a lot of crappy movies.  The comic is — I say again — absolutely hilarious.  I can’t recommend it higher.  Check it out!

After much debate, I decided to skip the animated Star Wars Clone Wars movie that was released to theaters in late August.  It is almost unimaginable to me that I wouldn’t rush out to see a new Star Wars ANYTHING on the big screen.  But as I read bad review after bad review, claiming that the Clone Wars movie was chock-full of all the worst aspects of the prequels — stupid, juvenile jokes, wooden characters, etc. — that, in short, it was a movie clearly made for KIDS and not adults, I decided to pass.  Why go see something that it was certain I’d hate?  

When the Clone Wars TV series began this past week, I again had a decision to make.  Should I tune in?  (You see, the Clone Wars movie was the first three episodes of this new show edited together.  It was really just a splashy launch for the new, half-hour weekly animated show.)  But this time, the decision was much easier.  These shows were on TV — it was free, after all, and if they stunk I could always turn them off.  

So I checked out the first two episodes, which Cartoon Network aired back-to-back.  Things started off strong with the first episode, “Ambush.”  Yoda and a group of clone troopers head to the planet Toyndaria (the species to which Watto of Episode I belongs) to negotiate for permission to construct a Republic military base.  Of course, Count Dooku and the separatists are interested in the planet as well, and Yoda and three clone troopers quickly find themselves on the run from a horde of Battle Droids.  This was a solid episode — very fast-paced, with a ton of great Yoda-vs-droid action, and surprisingly good characterization for Yoda, Dooku, and the clones and Toyndarians.  With almost no human characters to be found, this episode also showcased what the computer animation does best — droids, ships, and actions.  (As became apparent in the second episode, the animation of humans is rather weaker, displaying a lot of the same problems seen back in the first Toy Story movie — the humans wind up looking rubbery and weird.)

The second episode, “Rising Malevolence,” reintroduces us to many of our familiar characters — Anakin Skywalker is the focus, but we also see R2D2, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and others.  Anakin and his padawan apprentice Ahsoka (a young girl apparently introduced in the Clone War movie — and how young Anakin has a padawan of his own is a mystery to me) investigate a new ultimate weapon that Dooku and General Grievous are testing.  We also spend time with Jedi Knight Plo Koon (a character seen but not given much to do in the prequels), who has his task force destroyed by this weapon, and spends much of the episode trapped in an escape pod with a few clone troopers, trying to evade the battle droids who are looking to finish them off.  As opposed to the self-contained “Ambush,” this episode leaves quite a bit unresolved.  On the one hand, that’s sort of cool, as I like the idea of long-running storylines in this show.  However, it also makes this second episode feel much less complete, and therefore less enjoyable, than the first one.

“Rising Malevolence” also exposes a number of weaknesses that I hope won’t become characteristic of the show, but that I fear will.  First of all, I find both Anakin and Ahsoka to be rather annoying.  Not Jar-Jar level unwatchable, but annoying nonetheless.  I find Ahsoka to be completely unnecessary — she’s the “kid sidekick” of which George Lucas seems to be fond, but she doesn’t contribute anything to the plot.  Indeed, I think she subtracts from what I wish was a greater focus on Anakin.  But then again, since the Anakin character seen here is just as stiff and boring as his counterpart in the live-action films, maybe that wouldn’t be any better.  I was also struck by the similarity between the Jedi Master trapped with three clone troopers stories seen in both episodes, and I hope the remainder of the series isn’t as formulaic.  (For much of “Rising Malevolence,” I was wondering if the three clone troopers weren’t supposed to be the same three clones as were with Yoda in “Ambush,” which doesn’t say much for the character-development on display, or for the animation.)

Bottom line?  Not a home run, but not a strike-out either.  I’ll definitely stay tuned for a few more episodes at least.  If the series winds up being more like “Ambush,” then we might have something of interest here.  I just hope the show is able to follow in the footsteps of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars shorts that came out a few years ago.  Also set between Episodes II and III, these traditionally-animated shorts were wonderful, giving us so much great stuff that I wish we’d seen in the prequels — enormous action, such as a massive siege of Coruscant (the show depicted just how Chancellor Palpatine got captured, a situation we found him in at the opening of Episode III), as well as some wonderful exploration of the powers and traditions of the Jedi (we saw the world that produces the crystals used to make light sabers, we saw the ceremony in which Anakin became a full Jedi Knight, we saw Anakin go through his own test of the cave, as Luke did in The Empire Strikes Back, and lots more).  

When I was a kid and first heard Obi-Wan Kenobi talk about the Clone Wars in the original Star Wars, I had great dreams about that galactic conflict.  Here’s hoping this series is able to tap into all of our imaginations the way Star Wars used to, as opposed to settling for lowest common denominator, made-for-kids dreck.  There’s still something quite incredible about seeing Yoda flick on his lightsaber and leap into battle (even though wars not make one great).  Let’s see more of that, please, George!

There are a few writer/directors whose new films, which we seem to get on a pleasingly regular basis, are always a must-see for me.  I’m thinking about talents like Woody Allen, David Mamet, and the Coen Brothers.  With artists like that, I know that a new film will always be interesting.  Sometimes I might love what I see, sometimes I might be disappointed, sometimes I might be indifferent —  but I always know that what I’m watching will be a unique, personal vision.

I’ve been a bit of a late-comer to the films of the Coen Brothers.  Their first film I saw was Fargo, soon after it came out in 1996, but I didn’t quite “get it” back then.  I think it wasn’t until a few years later when I first saw The Hudsucker Proxy on tape in college that I really started to take notice of these filmmakers.  (I just re-watched Hudsucker last week, and it remains one of my absolute favorite films.  More on this below.)

It always seems for me that the Coen Brothers films that everyone likes, I don’t — and the ones that get passed over are the ones I really dig.  Everyone went crazy about O Brother Where Art Thou?, but I found it to be a dull, rather obvious take on the storylines of The Odyssey.  Conversely, I think I’m one of the few people on Earth who really dug the screwball comedy and rat-tat-tat dialogue of George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty.  And as for No Country for Old Men, which got such acclaim last year… I was thoroughly engrossed in the film for most of its run-time, but ultimately I felt it just didn’t earn the message given by its title, and Tommy Lee Jones’ monologue in the last scene.  What was it about the death of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) that so affected Sheriff Bell (Tommy lee Jones)?  For a man who had clearly been involved in other cases that involved murder and death, what was it about this particular event that shook the Sheriff so deeply?  The film’s title — No Country for Old Men — and the way the end of the film focuses on Tommy Lee Jones, while we never get to see Llewelyn’s tragic end, indicates that the film was really the Sheriff’s story, not Llewelyn’s.  But I, as a viewer, was invested in Llewelyn!  And having the end of his story cut off by the finale (we never see Llewelyn’s final confrontation with Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh) really pulled me out of my enjoyment of the film.

Which brings me to Burn After Reading, the newest film written and directed by the Coen Brothers.  Disgruntled CIA employee Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) decides to write a memoir, but a disc containing his manuscript winds up in the hands of two rather clue-less gym employees:  Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt).  Not surprisingly, things go badly from there.

The film is marvelous — I was tickled from the first scene straight through to the last.  As the misadventure piles up, we spend some time with an array of bizarre and interesting characters.  All three actors listed above are wonderful, and they’re joined by Tilda Swinton as Cox’s wife Katie, who is having an affair with Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney, in the sort of delightfully tic-filled performance he seems to consistently give in Coen Brothers films).  

One of the things I most enjoyed about the film (and, indeed, about most Coen Brothers films), is that it can’t easily be labeled.  There are a number of truly funny moments — but also some edge-of-your seat suspense and a few moments of quite horrifying violence.  This is definitely the Coens working in “quirky” mode (in contrast to a film like No Country for Old Men), but that doesn’t mean that the story and the characters don’t have dramatic heft.  Quite the contrary, I found myself getting very involved with the wacky band of loons we follow through this film, and the unfortunate ends that quite a few of them meet left me saddened indeed.  

But what sticks with me about the film is the comedy.  Linda and Chad trying to sell Cox’s memoirs to the Russians, or their hapless attempt to blackmail Cox over the phone.  Harry’s invention.  The car chase.  And I must mention David Rasche and the great J.K. Simons (Spider-Man, Juno) as CIA agents trying to make some sort of sense out of the whole crazy story.

This is definitely a film worth checking out.

Oh!  And I mentioned above that I’d recently re-watched The Hudsucker Proxy.  If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it.  Broke, niave, idealistic Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) finds himself the head of the enormous Hudsucker Industries.  He’s been set up to fail, but one great invention is all Norville needs to turn things around.  It sort-of sounds like the set-up for an Adam Sandler movie (a moron is picked to run a business empire!), but its actually a sweet, loopy farce.  Robbins is great as the endearing Barnes, and Jennifer Jason Leigh gives the performance of her career as the fast-talking no-nonsense reporter gal Amy Archer.  And Paul Newman is compellingly duplicitous as the gravelly-voiced Sidney J. Mussburger, who, as the acting head of the Hudsucker board, is the man who tapped Barnes to head the company.  Newman is absolutely magnetic — when he’s on screen he is a stunningly powerful presence.  I re-watched this film only a few days before he passed away last week, and I was really glad to have had the reminder of his incredible abilities.  There other familiar faces to be found, as well:  Charles Durning (check out imdb to see his looong list of credits) plays company founder Waring Hudsucker, John Mahoney (Martin Crane on Frasier) plays the newspaper chief, and the amazing Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead, and cameos in all three Spider-Man movies) plays Amy’s reporter-partner Smitty.  Everyone seems to be having a lot of fun — and I know I do, every time I watch this.  Give it a try.