Cats and monsters
I've seen a remarkable variety of movies since the last entry, so I'll just buzz through them quickly, since some of them will of course get covered more thoroughly on Stomp Tokyo.
The Cat's Meow - This isn't exactly Kirsten Dunst's finest acting work, but it's not terrible either, and the focus is definitely elsewhere in this bit of speculative fiction about 1920s Hollywood. Eddie Izzard is a particularly compelling incarnation of Charlie Chaplin, who becomes obsessed with Marion Davies (Dunst), the mistress of newspaper goliath William Randolph Hearst. The story attempts to explain the machinations behind the (accidental?) death of Thomas Ince (played here by the underused Cary Elwes), a film exec who fell mysteriously ill after celebrating his birthday with a cruise aboard Hearst's yacht, the Oneida. While little is known about what actually happened, or even who was aboard the Oneida at the time, screenwriter Steven Peros and director Peter Bogdanovich populate the film with a number of scurrilous thrill-seeking socialites, including gossip columnist Luella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly, who hits just the right notes) and Elinor Glyn (Joanna Lumley, who plays another smug Brit like her character in Cold Comfort Farm). Edward Herrmann is the undisputed star, however, as he takes W.R. Hearst from obsessive paranoia to outright panic and then to calculated steeliness. I haven't seen Machiavellian mood swings like this since Joe Pantoliano went slowly bonkers in Bound.
The Cat Returns - Another feline title, but very little like the last film. Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli created this film from a graphic novel, which began as a concept from Miyazaki himself. It's not a breathtaking film like Totoro or Mononoke, but it is of the level you'd expect from Studio Ghibli, which means it's better than 99% of the crap out there made for children by other film studios. Haru (voiced by Chizuru Ikewaki) is a young teenaged girl who rescues a cat from traffic one afternoon. When it turns out that the cat is feline royalty, Haru finds herself repaid in unexpected ways. Pure bliss for Ghibli junkies like me, and a highly amusing diversion for casual fans of animated movies.
Frailty - Plenty of other critics have hashed over the plot of this one, and while I can't say it ever really surprised me, I was happy that it chose the more difficult -- and philosophically stimulating -- road in the end. A bit too gory, but some brave filmmaking and sincere acting compensate. Bill Paxton keeps weaving over the line between ridiculousness and respectability. Pick a side, Bill!
Camille 2000 - I added this to my Netflix queue back when Radley Metzger's movies seemed intriguing, but this movie was such a typical example of '60s Eurotrash soft-core porn that I tuned out about half an hour in. If it got spectacularly better after that, let me know.
UltraSeven: The End of the Contract - Someone took the script for a particularly esoteric episode of Dr. Who and tacked on a fight between Ultraman (sorry, UltraSeven) and a giant monster at the end! I'm gonna have to see this one again before we review it at ST -- it was really weird. At least the fight was pretty good.
Space Ghost cartoons: one of my better bootleg scores as of late was this disc of the original Space Ghost adventures. Trippy! I wonder why space monkey Blip never shows up on the new show?
That's it for now. Hopefully updates will appear with more regularity.
The Cat's Meow - This isn't exactly Kirsten Dunst's finest acting work, but it's not terrible either, and the focus is definitely elsewhere in this bit of speculative fiction about 1920s Hollywood. Eddie Izzard is a particularly compelling incarnation of Charlie Chaplin, who becomes obsessed with Marion Davies (Dunst), the mistress of newspaper goliath William Randolph Hearst. The story attempts to explain the machinations behind the (accidental?) death of Thomas Ince (played here by the underused Cary Elwes), a film exec who fell mysteriously ill after celebrating his birthday with a cruise aboard Hearst's yacht, the Oneida. While little is known about what actually happened, or even who was aboard the Oneida at the time, screenwriter Steven Peros and director Peter Bogdanovich populate the film with a number of scurrilous thrill-seeking socialites, including gossip columnist Luella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly, who hits just the right notes) and Elinor Glyn (Joanna Lumley, who plays another smug Brit like her character in Cold Comfort Farm). Edward Herrmann is the undisputed star, however, as he takes W.R. Hearst from obsessive paranoia to outright panic and then to calculated steeliness. I haven't seen Machiavellian mood swings like this since Joe Pantoliano went slowly bonkers in Bound.
The Cat Returns - Another feline title, but very little like the last film. Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli created this film from a graphic novel, which began as a concept from Miyazaki himself. It's not a breathtaking film like Totoro or Mononoke, but it is of the level you'd expect from Studio Ghibli, which means it's better than 99% of the crap out there made for children by other film studios. Haru (voiced by Chizuru Ikewaki) is a young teenaged girl who rescues a cat from traffic one afternoon. When it turns out that the cat is feline royalty, Haru finds herself repaid in unexpected ways. Pure bliss for Ghibli junkies like me, and a highly amusing diversion for casual fans of animated movies.
Frailty - Plenty of other critics have hashed over the plot of this one, and while I can't say it ever really surprised me, I was happy that it chose the more difficult -- and philosophically stimulating -- road in the end. A bit too gory, but some brave filmmaking and sincere acting compensate. Bill Paxton keeps weaving over the line between ridiculousness and respectability. Pick a side, Bill!
Camille 2000 - I added this to my Netflix queue back when Radley Metzger's movies seemed intriguing, but this movie was such a typical example of '60s Eurotrash soft-core porn that I tuned out about half an hour in. If it got spectacularly better after that, let me know.
UltraSeven: The End of the Contract - Someone took the script for a particularly esoteric episode of Dr. Who and tacked on a fight between Ultraman (sorry, UltraSeven) and a giant monster at the end! I'm gonna have to see this one again before we review it at ST -- it was really weird. At least the fight was pretty good.
Space Ghost cartoons: one of my better bootleg scores as of late was this disc of the original Space Ghost adventures. Trippy! I wonder why space monkey Blip never shows up on the new show?
That's it for now. Hopefully updates will appear with more regularity.
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