Mr. K's Geek Cornucopia

Blog Department of Burying the Lede, Tyler Cowen Edition

2012-02-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Some of you long-time "Mr. K" fans (if such a creature exists) might remember when I blogged about Tyler Cowen's writing on arts and capitalism. It won't surprise you that I continue to follow his blog Marginal Revolution, which he co-writes with Alex Tabarrok. While I don't agree with all of his conclusions or understand some of the headier economic material, he usually has some interesting

The money will roll right in...

2012-01-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

I went to go see "Under the Big Black Sun", the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibit of modern art from 1974-1981 on Saturday. It was a free day for most of Los Angeles' museums, so I figured I would make the most of it with a journey downtown, via train, through the barren wastelands of Downtown LA on the weekend, to Little Tokyo. Now, with an exhibition named after an album by LA

Quick "I'm still here post"

2012-01-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say "hi" to all you out in blogland. I haven't forgotten you, I swear! This blog isn't going to go live on a farm with Firefly and Community and mainstream horror movies that aren't found footage. So I'm just going to post some of the crazy search terms that get people to my blog: "psychedelic prison" - probably because of my post on Joseph Losey's Modesty Blaise post. Or that's

The past is a foreign country...

2012-01-18T14:07:00.000-08:00

I recently watched the two hour pilot of Showtime's The Borgias (I know, welcome to 2010, Mr. K) and the first two episodes of Roberto Rossellini's Age of The Medicis, which was produced as a three part miniseries on Italian television in the 1970s. Both shows dealing with politics in the Italian Renaissance, both helmed by talented directors (Neil Jordan serving as the show-runner for the

This is the end, beautiful friend, the end...

2012-01-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

So my talented and funny friend Brock Wilbur has just started an amazing series of reviews on movies about the apocalypse or post-apocalypse (though he missed out by not calling it the A-Brock-Alypse). You can see the first post here. But it reminded me of how many post-apocalyptic films there are, even if you exclude zombie movies totally. Off the top of my head, here are some interesting

"It was St. Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows..."

2011-12-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

So jokes Nick Cave at one point in his darkly comic song about a psychopath killing all the patrons in a small-town bar, "O'Malley's Bar", off the classic album Murder Ballads. It's an album about murder and death that deals with both man's drive towards destruction, while also examining the wreckage in the aftermath. For an album about murder, it never languishes in one mood for too long, while

I'm sick, so time for some heresy to spark discussion...

2011-11-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

People like to complain about how Spielberg and Lucas created a generation of films aimed at overgrown men-children. But I wonder how much of the youth-oriented nature of films today are the fault of John Hughes. All his generic teens and their generic issues, the films in the end coming down on the side of the conformists and middle-class whitebread midwesterners, preparing us for a crop of

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN: Horror on a minimum wage

2011-10-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

THE INNKEEPERS (2011) Directed by Ti West Starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis If you had told me that the next movie from the guy behind House of the Devil was also going to be a throwback to an earlier style of horror, I certainly wouldn't have been surprised. But if you'd told me that he was making a slow-burn ghost story with very little gore, along the lines of the original

Halloween countdown: He served a dark and a stupid god

2011-10-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Directed by Tim Burton Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall I know quite a few people I like and whose opinions I respect won't agree with what I'm about to write. Not just friends, but apparently even Mister Stephen Sondheim himself. But Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd just isn't good. In

Quick Link Love...

2011-10-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

I already have a bit of an intellectual crush on Jess Nevins for his series of pulp posts at io9, his annotations of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Top 10, and his tumblr blog. But now he has to go write an awesome and inspirational article about Asian history in the 18th and 19th century and Asian pulp literature for sci-fi publishers Tor. RTWT, but my favorite part (and best idea for a

Halloween Countdown: I love Lucky McKee...

2011-10-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

I love Lucky McKee. I've only seen two of his three and a half films (the half is his episode of Masters of Horror: Sick Girl), but I've loved both May and The Woods for the way they played around with the conventions of horror, while still finding the monster/villains sympathetic. And the way he switched from the low-key "indie" style in May to a very lush '60's feel in The Woods showed he had

"I knew I'd never take him alive... I didn't try too hard neither."

2011-10-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yet another half-written blog post I've discovered from a couple of months ago. Figured I might as well post it, because, though it isn't a full review, you should at least consider it a recommendation. DILLINGER (1973) d. John Milius Starring Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Phillips, Richard Dreyfuss and Cloris Leachman John Dillinger (Warren Oates) is a famous

Adventures in Victorian spec-fic...

2011-09-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

I recently got a Smartphone, thanks to the generosity of Father K and Mother K, and one that came pre-installed with a Kindle app. After about two days of playing with the Smartphone, I remembered that, "gee, Amazon lets you download works in the public domain for no money." At which point I began a downloading binge of (less-than) epic proportions, focusing on obscure or lesser-known public

Dear television networks:

2011-09-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have an idea for the greatest show ever, that will hit all four quadrants: Two grown-up bros, approaching middle-age, have to move to the suburbs with their daughters (who are teen witches and Mean Girls at the same time!) to uncover the mysterious past of their dead wives, who occasionally come back as ghosts to help them change their lives and/or give them sassy relationship advice. Together

Memoirs of an Invisible Blogger

2011-09-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the sustained radio silence, geeks & geekettes. I've been very busy with a new job, attending a friend's wedding, and having my girlfriend move in with me. So, yeah, expect posting to be light for a little longer to come.

Religion in the Marvel and DC universes

2011-08-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

So, the wonderful and talented Wizera has decided to enter the internet blogosphere, and her post about modern-day depictions of the Olympian underworld as a Hell-equivalent reminded me of how weird the Marvel and DC universes are, where religion is concerned. For example, in the Marvel universe, you've got the Norse and Greek pantheons, who have their own afterlives (Hel running Valhalla, Pluto

Writer makes disappointing directorial debut. Also, dog bites man...

2011-07-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

STITCHED (2011) Directed by Garth Ennis Starring Tank Jones, Lauren Alonzo, and Kate Kugler Synopsis: The survivors of a crashed American chopper in Afghanistan face a greater threat than the Taliban when they are set upon by a seemingly invulnerable army of the undead. And then the SAS shows up... I blow hot and cold on Garth Ennis. On the one hand, he has written some great and compelling

Stop talking about comic books or I'll kill you...

2011-07-20T11:10:00.001-07:00

I'm heading to Comicon. Posting to resume after I return!

Because Eve Tushnet always has such interesting posts...

2011-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Eve challenged her readers to think of Christian films and atheist films for hypothetical film festivals. Apparently, it's been easier for her readers to think of atheist films than Christian ones. For the purpose of this post, she's talking about films that represent those worldviews, not necessarily films made by Christians or atheists. Christian films The Trial of Joan of Arc (d. Robert

A Quick Appreciation of Stan Lee....

2011-07-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

So I'd been feeling burned out with comic books lately for several reasons (which will be the subject of a later post). Luckily, I decided to dig out those black & white phone book-style reprints of Kirby's Thor & New Gods that Marvel and DC put out about ten years ago. I've always been a big Kirby fan and I even enjoy his late period stuff, which is certainly flawed, but has a wonderful energy.

And now for something completely different...

2011-06-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, I know I haven't been posting a lot lately. Part of it is because I've been busy, but part of it is just exhaustion and boredom. So I want to change things up a little, with a special experiment. About a month or two ago, I read a movie script by a friend of mine named Brock Wilbur. He's an amazingly talented writer/musician/actor, and the script he wrote, called Your Friends Close, combines

THE PETRIFIED FOREST plus Nazis should really be more exciting, shouldn't it?

2011-06-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

ESCAPE IN THE DESERT (1945) d. Edward A. Blatt Starring: Phillip Dorn, Jean Sullivan, Irene Manning and Alan Hale (yes, the father of the Skipper from Gilligan's Island) While I don't really count myself as nostalgic for long-gone ages in most respects (no contact lenses, lots of diseases, and racism and sexism out the wazoo), I usually have a rather rose-colored vision of the Golden Age of

"What does katana mean?" "It means 'Japanese sword'."

2011-06-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

SAMURAI COP (1989) d. Amir Shervan Starring Robert Z'Dar, Matt Hannon, Matt Frazer and Gerald Okamura Now let me start off by saying: I like bad movies. Some people think the "so bad it's good" designation for some movies is a snobbish thing, born out of some cruel, classist impulse to mock people whose artistic values are not your own. That bad movie fans just get a kick out of seeing

And we're back! (almost)

2011-06-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Whooo... That was quite a crazy couple of weeks. I just wrapped shooting on the first film I've ever had made out of something I wrote. The shoot was wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better cast and crew. We did run into problems, but people kept their cool and we worked around them. And from the dailies I've seen, this project is going to be amazing. I'm not just saying that because I

The best crime film to involve Beethoven's birthplace...

2011-05-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET (1973) d. Samuel Fuller Starring Glenn Corbett, Christa Lang Fuller, Anton Diffring, Eric P Caspar & Stephane Audran I had a chance to check this out thanks to a friend in UCLA's film archives graduate program who had it screened with Christa Fuller (the star and Fuller's wife) talking about it afterwards. This hard-to-find Fuller film was actually shot for German

The American healthcare system failed me...

2011-05-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

This post has nothing to do with art. I'm sorry. I promise to resume posting on the stuff most people like to read about here soon. But this is something I've needed to say for a long time. American health insurance has failed me again. I've heard all the arguments for and against reforms to American health insurance. I've heard a lot of arguments for and against almost each specific reform. I'm

A special treat for Mr. K fans...

2011-05-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

I fly to Chicago tomorrow. I'm going to be gone for a week, and probably without internet access for most of that week. But I do have a special treat for you. I was volunteering at Cinefamily last week for a special event they did with clothing label Stussy. They screened Punisher: War Zone and clips from a bunch of obscure Marvel multimedia (including the Japanese live-action Spider-Man and

Another blog post about blogging...

2011-05-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

Once again, sorry for the huge gaps between posts. I'm co-producing that short film I mentioned last post (new content on our official website, along with the trailer), I've been volunteering at the amazing Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre a lot (buy me a drink and I'll tell you about the angry mob at the Natural History Museum), and I've been writing and revising a scene for an alumni

WOMEN AND MEN AND WOMEN: Rare self-promotion post...

2011-04-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Most of you might know me as that nerdy guy who posts snarky things about science fiction or old movies. But I also write other things that I don't post on the blog. One such thing is a script for a short film called Women and Men and Women. It started life as a satire on all those infuriating plays about how white male artists have such a hard time finding a girl who understands how hard they

Everyday I write the script...

2011-04-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been away for a while. Life keeps interfering with blogging, as it tends to. The good news is that part of the reason I've been so busy is another writing project, about which I plan to post more soon. The bad news is that, between that project, keeping my hand in at attempted screenwriting ("Do they give a Nobel for Attempted Physics?", I can hear Sideshow Bob whine) and my family

Profiles in awesomeness...

2011-04-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, this isn't really a profile per se, as me taking a moment to give thanks I live in Los Angeles because it enables me to see all manners of awesomeness by awesome people. James Jean, the artist responsible for amazing covers for series such as Fables & Umbrella Academy, has a gallery show here in LA that closes April 30th. It's at the Martha Otero Gallery at 820 N Fairfax. I plan to check

As a counterpoint to Zev's thoughtful post over at On Chicago Theatre...

2011-03-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

I suggest this article over at Slate, by Bill James trying to explain why we as a nation produce so many great athletes but don't produce very many great writers (or sub in actor/dancer/classically-trained musician/fine artist, etc.). Really... RTWT, I'll be waiting. I don't disagree with Zev's post at all, btw. I think he points out that the best way to fix things is to actually try ways of

John Brown's Body is Moldering in the Grave...

2011-03-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Watched Santa Fe Trail (d. Michael Curtiz, 1940) last night and was very disappointed. It's one of those Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland swashbucklers, but here Flynn is JEB Stuart, doing his best to restore order to "Bleeding" Kansas and defeat John Brown. Now, there's certainly a lot to discuss about how the picture gets history wrong (we're talking National Treasure 2 levels of inaccuracy)

The Trial of Lucullus and/or Jesse Camp...

2011-03-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

I watched Aeon Flux, the animated series version, for the first time tonight. The first few episodes are fascinating. I'm pretty sure indie comics tackling genre stories are only now exploring that kind of territory. However, the legacy of MTV's original programming reminds me of a Brecht piece called the Trial of Lucullus. I'm retelling this mainly from memory, so excuse any errors. The Roman

Sci-fi tropes that need to be banned for 50 years...

2011-03-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

I had a serious post half-written about how I'm somewhat tired of the sci-fi genre. And then I realized it would probably be more helpful/fun to make a post of sci-fi tropes/plot devices that need to be banned for at least the next 50 years. Clearly I'm not a governing body with any kind of authority, so, think of it this way. If you are writing something in which any of the following things are

2011-03-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

"A mother-in-law ought to know where her son-in-law can be arrested..."- The Three-Penny Opera, 1931, d. G.W Pabst

"Watch the picture, then. And don't move."

2011-03-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

The post below contains my thoughts on Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire. This was one of the films I considered posting about for the Film Noir blog-a-thon, but didn't have enough original thoughts to bring it to a full post. However, Ed Howard did end up writing a wonderful post about Crossfire. And, luckily for me, one of his thoughts, regarding the fact we know the culprit for the inciting murder

Spy versus spy (Joseph Losey division)

2011-02-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

Modesty Blaise (1966) d. Joseph Losey Starring: Monica Vitti, Terrence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, and Clive Revill If there is one silver lining to wearying but banal illnesses like a cold or the flu, it is the way they justify catching up on one's movie viewing, especially lightweight cinematic confections. I might not be interested in watching Salo right now, but something like Modesty Blaise or a

I'm listed MIA...

2011-02-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

Whoah, thanks to everyone who checked out my post on Hangmen Also Die! as part of the For the Love of Film Noir Blog-a-thon. I've got some follow-up posts in the works, but I spent last week in Chicago, and this week was spent with me drained by the twin demons of poor health and day jobs. But on the positive side, I've now got a blu-ray player that is Wi-Fi enabled, so I'll be watching Netflix

"We do not make mistakes!" HANGMEN ALSO DIE (1943)

2011-02-14T00:22:00.000-08:00

d. Fritz Lang Starring Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee and Gene Lockhart A while back, the talented David Cairns posted an excellent tribute to the obscure noir/WWII film THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT by the German transplant/film director Robert Siodmak. It's an amazing reversal of audience sentiment, drawing us in with a traditional procedural, then reversing our sympathies and

Okay, BADLANDS is a pretty awesome movie...

2011-02-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

but why does everything I've ever heard about it focuses on the lyricism and ignores the dark humor pervading it? I don't see how you can hear Spacek's narration and not read into it some irony (on the behalf of the film, not of Spacek's character). Also, it would make an interesting companion piece to the Coen Brothers' True Grit. Both feature female leads and narrators who are introduced into

Coming soon to a blog near you...

2011-02-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been updating much lately, despite having a lot of awesome things happen and seeing a lot of awesome movies. However, I have promised to participate in the brilliant and charming Self-Styled Siren's For the Love of Film Noir blog-a-thon (link to donate to the restoration of a great noir film here). I'm choosing between one of two films. Haven't quite decided which to post. Hint

UNITED TRASH at The Silent Movie Theatre's NIGHT WITH UDO KIER

2011-01-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

Cinefamily at Silent Movie Theatre's "Night with Udo Kier" was an embarassment of riches. The showing of the Kier-starring short film MRS. MEITLEMEIHR and two previously unscreened Guy Maddin shorts (part of a project to reconstruct over 200 lost silent films) were fascinating and a fitting tribute to the actor's comedic and avant-garde sides. And the Q and A session, in which Udo responded

Great moments in history, part 1...

2011-01-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Julia Lovell's hilarious and nuanced history, The Great Wall: China Against the World: After Wang [a eunuch tutor with great hold over the previous emperor]'s death in battle, officials took a terrible revenge on Ma Shun, one of Wang's surviving eunuch lieutenants at court. In an extraordinary scene, unprecedented and unrepeated in Chinese political history, a bloody fistfight broke

Ooooh, speaking of things I want....

2011-01-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

The non-zillion dollar version of Taschen's book about Kubrick's Napoleon (a steal at a mere 70 dollars!) is coming out soon-ish. Seriously, check the link. I mean, I already want half of Taschen's releases, but this blends my cinephilia and art-nerd lust into one object.

My retro career just melted....

2011-01-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

On top of reading The UFA Story, I've been on a "behind-the-scenes" of Hollywood kick lately. About John Gregory Dunne's The Studio I have very little to say, other than that it is a fascinating view of how some great (and not-so-great) films were created over at 20th Century Fox, even as studio executives show an inability to relate to the realities of '60s America. However, I also read Edward

UFA versus Hollywood: or, what Archie Hickox was talking about...

2011-01-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

I'm reading Klaus Kreimeier's The UFA Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company 1918-1945, because I've been very interested in Nazi Germany art and culture for a while and the way the state interacted with artists beyond mere censorship. Watching Inglourious Basterds again, which briefly touched on the way UFA tried to be both a branch of the entertainment industry and of the

Tears of the Black Tiger Mother

2011-01-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is not the real post I promised. And Tears of the Black Tiger is a Thai film, not Chinese, but it was the first pun to come to mind... So there's apparently some sort of mild controversy around Amy Chua, who wrote a book about her rather strict "Chinese mother" (her formulation, not mine) parenting style, which raised two genius daughters. The whole thing is rather storm-in-a-teacup,

Welcome to the working week...

2011-01-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Eve Tushnet, for the link! Right now, I'm busy with a new temp assignment and other projects. Updates soon, including one on Peter Sasdy's Countess Dracula, possibly the late Ingrid Pitt's best work.

Fantasy if it was written by sci-fi writers...

2010-12-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

So, a random tweet made me think of Robert A. Heinlein's LORD OF THE RINGS, which in turn put me in mind of how classic fantasy is usually very conservative (in the little c sense). Science fiction writers usually have their own brand of crazy political ideology, but at least few of them share the same idiosyncrasies. So without further ado, here are synopses of how sci-fi writers would have

Post-Christmas Wishlist, Unlikely To Be Fulfilled Edition

2010-12-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

I actually had a pretty decent Christmas, but as I get older, the more Christmas becomes about the joys of giving than getting something. Now that I've reached adulthood and have the internet at my disposal, there are fewer and fewer things that I can't buy or at least borrow/rent. But there are things that are either in legal limbo or hard-to-find (even on the gray market or in archives) that

Such an unlikely Christmas movie...

2010-12-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

The Legend of Hell House (1973) directed by John Hough [who also directed Escape From Witch Mountain, oddly enough.] Starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt So I watched Legend of Hell House yesterday and I just realized that, since the science team's stay in the house starts on Monday December 20th and runs through Friday December 24th, technically, it's a

Wrapping yourself in the flag...

2010-12-21T23:25:00.000-08:00

Over on the newly revived Unplanned Misadventures of Mirmir and Bess (come for the anecdotes of fun adventures, stay for the feminist/anti-imperialist dissection of nerdery), Miriam dissects the white supremacist boycott of THOR very well, but I wanted to respond to the fact that she's never been a fan of Captain America. And that's because Captain America's adventures are probably consistently

One last thing about 55 DAYS AT PEKING...

2010-12-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

During one sequence set in the Forbidden City, the camera pans past to take in all the exotic ornamentation... and shows a statue of a white elephant. Manny Farber would be proud.

An epic problem's not a problem for me: 55 DAYS AT PEKING (1963)

2010-12-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Directed by Nicholas Ray (and Andrew Marton and Guy Green) Starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven, John Ireland and a bunch of white people in yellowface make-up (including poor Robert Helpmann) I better start off by admitting I've never seen King of Kings. I know Nicholas Ray as the guy who made Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without a Cause (among others). And they're big films, epic

Three views of Yogi Bear

2010-12-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

(Inspired by this FunnyorDie video. With apologies to Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy and Alan Moore) 1. Yogi and Boo-Boo returned from the woods and stood over the ditch, looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay in a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child's and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky. Without his fedora, Yogi's eyes were red-rimmed

Overheard at Runyon Canyon

2010-12-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

To be fair, he is a creationist Wife: How long ago do you think they put this here? A hundred years? Husband: The trail or the mountain? Sharon Osbourne's Alaska? Guy #1: I don't even know who she is. Guy #2: She's Sarah Palin's daughter. She's the only person to gain weight on that show. Guy #1: Kelly Osbourne got hot on that show! Mr. Ed's people had a hard time keeping him in line... Guy

In case anyone needed an idea for a Christmas gift....

2010-12-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

Warner Brothers' Archive (their Burn-On-Demand DVD service) just issued the film version of Richard Stark's The Outfit, one of my favorite Richard Stark novels. It's part of the Parker series, about a sociopathic robber/thug who is also strangely professional. This time, Parker (in the movie, his name is Macklin) and his outlaw cronies decide to start robbing from the mob. And it's got Robert

Weird trivia you can learn from reading Variety...

2010-12-02T23:14:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize that Ronni Chasen (the publicist who was shot and killed recently) was actually Larry Cohen's sister. She worked as a publicist on Hell Up in Harlem & The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. As much as I love my sister, I doubt we could ever collaborate in any way on a piece of art. More power to her and Larry for getting along well enough to work on two films!

Season of the Witch

2010-11-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

The She Beast d. Michael Reeves, 1966Starring Barbara Steele, Ian Ogilvy, and John Karlsen In Communist-era Hungary, a vacationing English couple (Ian Ogilvy and Barbara Steele) find themselves dragged into a supernatural curse from 200 years ago when Veronica is possessed by a witch killed in the 18th century. Unfortunately, the only person able to help John exorcise his

Under construction

2010-11-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

Fooling around with new looks for the blog. In the interim, some recommendations: Nico's THE END concert album is a pretty damn amazing slice of wintry Nordic depression. You'll probably want to follow it up with something optimistic as a chaser, but it's a great album for a post-hangover mood or a "the holiday is over" feeling. And maybe that chaser should be Big Boi's recently released Sir

I hated, hated, hated this movie...

2010-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Tim over at Antagony & Ecstasy just posted a review of Song of the South that was calmly reasoned, yet empathetic, dealing with the complexities and problems of race in film in Hollywood's Golden Age. I think he's right about the hypocrisies and blind spots in how and why people decide to whitewash history, and I don't doubt he's right. However, I had an interesting experience when I sat down to

Exterminate!

2010-11-16T23:10:00.000-08:00

Between finally catching 5 Million Years to Earth (a.k.a Quatermass & the Pit) and watching a ton of Dr. Who, I'm curious as to what the timeline for each franchise (because Quatermass was a franchise, for a short time) and their various successes have to say about British science fiction and popular taste about science-fiction in general. Hypothesis: The Quatermass series' subject matter is

"Me? I'm a businessman. You and me are going to do a little business..."

2010-11-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

Note: Another old draft I reread and realized was publishable. More new content soon. Act of Violence (1948; d. Fred Zinneman, starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh and Mary Astor) I'm a Van Heflin fan. That's kind of an odd thing to say, if only because his filmography, while not undistinguished, is fairly minor. An important supporting role in Shane, a lead in the original 3:10 to

"It's not a screenplay. It's my life." June Film-log

2010-11-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

While I was going through and deleting old drafts that were no more than a half-written sentence, I came across these two entries from my June film-log that were in publishable shape. Popcorn (1991, d. Mark Herrier/Alan Ormsby?) - The release date says '91, but almost every other aspect of this movie screams '80s. A bunch of college students holding a horror movie marathon at an old movie

Department of "Fan" Service, AFI Edition

2010-11-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Tim, you should know that Aaron Sorkin likes All the President's Men. As in, really, really, really likes All the President's Men. He said that it's a film that you can watch 8 or a dozen times and still find something new every time. So your good taste is shared by one of the luminaries of screenwriting. No surprise, really, but sometimes validation is a wonderful thing. Yours, Mr. K P.S.

AFI: Hearts & Minds, 1900s Edition

2010-11-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

AMIGO, directed by John Sayles, 2010 Starring Garret Dillahunt, Chris Cooper, Lucas Neff and DJ Qualls [Although the main characters are actually the Filipino actors who probably won't get any billing on the poster, if this ever gets theatrical release] In some ways, the story of how Amigo came about is the most interesting part of it. John Sayles has apparently been working on a screenplay

I'm so LA now...

2010-11-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Managed to get some tickets to the AFI Film Fest's events. So tonight I'm seeing John Sayles' new movie Amigo (about the Spanish-American War), tomorrow I'm seeing a Q&A with Aaron Sorkin & a screening of Bergman's Hour of the Wolf, and Tuesday I've got passes to a "Secret Screening", which I'm guessing is either The Other Side of the Wind or Harry Potter 7. I'll keep you guys posted.

Film Log: October/Now I have a DVR Edition, Part 1

2010-11-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

They Died With Their Boots On (d. Raoul Walsh, 1941) - An Errol Flynn/Olivia DeHavilland swashbuckler, except this one is about William Armstrong Custer. Some of the charm wears off the duo when they're serving a bipolar piece of historical whitewash that simultaneously glorifies the military while trying to be anti-imperialist and anti-big business. This must be the only Civil War film that has

Mad Men, 1950s-style...

2010-11-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

Watching Robert Wise's Executive Suite (1954), and I get the feeling that Matthew Weiner must have seen this movie at some point. Not to say that Mad Men is ripping it off, just saying that this feels like a source of inspiration. Also, Nina Foch in this reminds me a little of Joan Holloway, down to the pen hanging in front of her cleavage.

This is not my brother...

2010-10-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Your Halloween treat for today, one of the most unsettling horror comics I've read in months: His Face All Red by Emily Carroll. Trust me, no matter what kind of horror you like, you'll enjoy it.

Less scary horror films...

2010-10-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

There's a theme going around on twitter of #lessurgentmovies. For Halloween, here are some of my suggestions: And Now the Nagging Starts The Yipping An American in London Ginger is Kind of Testy 28 Days Earlier The Legend of Heck House Taste the Sweat of Dracula! Frankenstein Created Women's Clothing Frankenstein Must Be Sternly Lectured! Children Shouldn't Play With Things Wait Until

More money, more cash, more posts...

2010-10-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that there are now ads on the Geek Cornucopia and that I've started adding links to Amazon products. It's just an experiment, so if the ads are always completely inappropriate or annoying, I'll cut them back or eliminate them entirely. On the plus side, I'm hoping this will incentivize posting, so that I'll have some reason for people to check out this site. If you

The tightest 2 hours & 20 minutes in movie history...

2010-10-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Honey Pot, d. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1967 Starring Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, and Maggie Smith "If not for Signor Perry Mason, each week in America, an innocent person would be convicted," says a police detective as he leaves for work, midway through The Honey Pot. That should give you an idea of how much respect Mankiewicz (who directed & wrote All About Eve, among other

Department of First World Problems...

2010-10-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Has anyone come up with a word for the feeling of shame & disappointment when you delete something from your DVR that you intended to save?

Baby steps to full posts...

2010-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

In a Halloween mood today, I tried to watch some horror movies on Netflix Streaming. The first film I tried was Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera, starring Julian Sands & Asia Argento. What a poor choice. The dubbing was awful, the Phantom had psychic powers and had been raised by rats and (worse yet!) was not even deformed. Plus, Asia Argento was trying to play a normal person, which never

Drove across the continental US in 7 days...

2010-10-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

and I feel like Barry Newman's character at the end of Vanishing Point. Though at least I don't have to crash into a police roadblock. More later.

If anyone still reads this blog...

2010-09-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

I am alive! In the last month, I've shoved all my stuff into a storage unit in Chicago, seen my little sister get married, spent a whirlwind two weeks traveling to London, Amsterdam & Vienna, and am now about to move to Los Angeles, with an apartment almost lined up. Hopefully at some point in the near future, I can get up my reviews of Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 at the Globe and a revival of Noel

I think Netflix is broken...

2010-08-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

because the under-rated Anthony Mann western The Last Frontier, starring James Whitmore, Victor Mature, Anne Bancroft & Robert Preston and shot in Cinemascope (!) is garnering the same rating of three and a half stars as Saw & Death Sentence. I know there's no accounting for taste, but this has to be a technical problem with the site, not that people actually like Saw or Death Sentence that much

Standing on the blog where nobody posts...

2010-08-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Dear blog, I'm sorry I abandoned you, but I've been busy fulfilling stuff that is more essential according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, i.e. figuring out where I'm going to live. I've seen some pretty interesting films recently, such as Don't Bother to Knock (d. Roy Baker), Marilyn Monroe's almost psycho-killer role, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Piranha 3D (which I have more and more

"I promise you, things are about to get a whole shit-load brighter": BEACH PARTY AT THE THRESHOLD OF HELL

2010-07-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Director: Jonny Gillette/Kevin Wheatley Starring: Kevin Wheatley, Paul Whitty, Jamie Bullock, and quick cameos from Daniel Baldwin, Jane Seymour and Tony Hale In case Kevin Wheatley serving as both star and (one of the) director(s) wasn't enough, he also wrote the screenplay. Also, his biggest credit other than this is a recurring role on "Dirt". And if that didn't kill your interest, the fact

There are no guilty pleasures...

2010-07-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

... but there are things to be guilty over, especially once the pleasure is gone. So I'm going through my CD collection, weeding out stuff I don't listen to any more or that I have a digital copy of already. And yikes, I forgot how many bad or embarassing CDs I own. And yes, I say this despite the fact I now admit to liking Grand Funk Railroad. For example, I own/owned: a CD by Powerman 5000

Words for writers to live by...

2010-07-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

Danilo Kis' A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, a sad and moving short story collection that recounts various Soviet-era apparatchiks, traitors, criminals and dissidents, ends with the tongue-in-cheek "The Short Biography of A.A. Darmolatov". The true meaning of this piece, about a minor poet who survives years of Soviet rule without getting sent to a work camp or put on trial, only emerges at the end

I couldn't agree more...

2010-07-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

From page 24 of Fear & Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson: ... Back to Chicago; it's never dull out there. You never know exactly what kind of terrible shit is going to come down on you in that town, but you can always count on something. Every time I got to Chicago I come away with scars. I'm doing well these days, but that sums up a lot of how I feel about my time in

"There is never a moment of culture, without it being at the same time a document of barbarity"

2010-07-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Stolen from Frederick Spotts' Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, quoting Walter Benjamin's tombstone. An interesting counterpoint to Arendt's Men in Dark Times, which I'm also skimming. Arendt's book is mostly a history of flawed but talented/gifted people struggling to preserve or change the world for the better. Spotts' book ends up being mostly a role call of artists, thinkers and builders

On politics, art and selling out...

2010-07-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most thoughtful warning comes from Hannah Arendt, speaking of Brecht's acquiesence to the Communist regime: "For the only meaningful punishment that a poet can suffer, short of death, is, of course, the sudden loss of what throughout human history has appeared a divine gift." - page 215 of Men in Dark Times, Harcourt, Brace and Court, 1968 Something to think about this Fourth of

Forget it, Jake, it's Wrigleyville...

2010-07-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I should say: I've taken classes at iO. I was taught by some great instructors there. I met some great people there, who I'm still friends with. I might even take classes at iO West when I move out to LA. That said.... I will not cry about the Malling of Wrigleyville. Because Wrigleyville is already a mall. It is a mall for people from the suburbs who view a trip to the city as a chance

Note to Chicago-area people:

2010-06-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Go see The Face of A Ruined Woman by Mia McCullough at Stage Left's Leapfest. Showtimes are tonight at 7:30 PM, Sunday 6/27 at 7:30 PM & Saturday 7/3 at 2 PM, at Stage Left's space on 3408 Sheffield. I haven't seen it yet, but Mia's last play, Lucinda's Bed, at Chicago Dramatists, was one of the best new plays of 2009, in my opinion. It took a funny, sexy and also dark look at sex and

"Send in the clowns"...no, really, send them in, they're supposed to be on camera

2010-06-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

I watched the Tonys last night with a bunch of friends (including Mr. Z of On Chicago Theater & Mr. T of Antagony & Ecstasy) and, among many other surprises (few of them good), was the fact that Green Day had four different songs performed on the broadcast. It's Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, and he had two shows with nominations this year. He got a snippet of song in the opening medley and "

We have to go back...lash

2010-05-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Two hour & a half hour finale starts in about an hour & 20 minutes. LOST backlash began weeks ago, with the airing of "Across the Sea" and showed up in a major way during the NY Times' lead-up coverage to the finale! I think there's a lot to criticize about LOST: the sexism, the hetero-normativity, the way a diverse & fascinating cast got winnowed down to mostly white people, and the way it

Jennifer Lynch's SURVEILLANCE (2008)

2010-05-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

"You probably read the end of the book first." "Yeah." "That's no way to live" SURVEILLANCE (2008) Directed by Jennifer Lynch Starring Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Michael Ironsides, Cheri Oteri, French Stewart, Kent Harper, Ryan Simpkins and Pell James Synopsis: FBI Agents Sam Hallaway (Bill Pullman) and Elizabeth Anderson (Julia Ormond) come to a small Midwestern town to interrogate the 3

Cleaning out backlog of articles to read...

2010-05-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

"We often have a way that we think we’re going to correct ourselves in the work that leads us to deny the talent we’re assigned or the subjects we’re assigned or the style we’re assigned. That’s certainly been true for me and I often see it with young writers" from an interview with Mary Karr. Earlier in the interview, she talks about how George Saunders initially was trying to be Raymond

Screening Log: December - January

2010-05-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Le Corbeau (d. Henri-Georges Clouzot) - A series of poison pen letters nearly destroy a rural French village. I think this is basically the film Michel Haneke has wanted to make his entire life. Clouzot has a keen eye for small-town hypocrisy and the cruelty of children, both in his villains and his heroes. At the end, you realize the most hateful character is the most victimized person of all,

Exeunt, pursued by CGI

2010-05-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

Roland Emmerich is making a movie about Shakespeare the dude crazy people like to claim wrote Shakespeare's work. The movie, natch, is called, Anonymous. Those of us hoping for an anti-Scientology movement biopic will be waiting for a while yet, I'm afraid. To those of us who are pro-Stratfordians, this is probably good news. Even if I'd believed in 2012 or God...zilla before, I'd be much less

Considering how much they love Guilds, you'd think they'd like unions...

2010-05-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

So, for various reasons, I recently signed up for Actor's Access, the website showing casting calls & breakdowns for commercial/film/tv work, both union & non-union. You can set up the system to notify you if there are any casting calls matching your profile. About a week ago, I got an e-mail regarding voice-overs for World of Warcraft. They were looking for men 25-55, able to do accents. But

We are living in the future, I'll tell you how I know

2010-05-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

You know, in the last five years, we've had the US government basically abandon a city following a natural disaster and now we have a major US metropolis without potable water for days to come. It's like Cory Doctorow and Mad Max and every zombie film's opening scenario merged into one.

The artistic are not like you or me...

2010-04-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

You know, as much guff as I like to give Neil LaBute, it is sometimes hilarious to realize how much more messed-up authors in the past could be. From the Voice's review of Alan Rickman's production of The Creditors: These same anxieties led Strindberg, at the time of Creditors' writing, to have his penis measured by a doctor and an attendant prostitute, who both "confirmed its normal size."Give

Keep it all in perspective...

2010-04-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in an artist's life, you need some sort of encouragement or boost from another artist. Well, Francesco Marcuiliano (who writes Medium Large & Sally Forth!) has provided us with a resource as helpful as Not Real Arts Jobs. Follow this link to find out How to Cope with Artistic Failure.

"The men are dressed like children; the kids are dressed like superheroes": GREENBERG

2010-04-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Finally saw GREENBERG last night at one of the last theaters playing it in Chicago. It was a well-done movie, that really mined the awkwardness of situations and the problems of the characters for laughs. It might make you hate people for a little afterwards, however. I wonder how Noah Baumbach can still be so misanthropic after having married a woman like Jennifer Jason Leigh. But considering

Future events such as these will affect you in the future: FLASHFORWARD

2010-04-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

As LOST wraps up its final season with a fair amount of fan argument & disappointment, it's easy to forget how well the show has blended soap opera with adventure, and straight-ahead adventure with an intellectual puzzle game. LOST is one of a very small number of shows where, even when I'm frustrated with the way characters are paired off, I'm emotionally invested in those pairings. And while it