Autumnal Analysis: From Lloyd to Lost, A List
November 13, 2005
It’s mid November, so with fall rapidly disintegrating, here’s a
rundown of ten mini-reviews I’ve had on my mind this season.
Happy Thanksgiving.
10. The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection: Released on Tuesday by New Line Home Entertainment, “The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection” celebrates the famed star’s silent shorts and features in three extras packed volumes, sold separately, or more conveniently, in one handsome boxed set. The films cover most of the bespectacled comedian’s early work, and all of his famous features, from 1922’s “Grandma’s Boy” one of his first films of considerable length (56m), and Lloyd’s personal favorite of his films, to latter masterpieces like “For Heaven’s Sake” (’26), and “Speedy” (’28), which has minimum sound effects not really worth mentioning, but a chase scene through 1927 New York City that is an all-time classic. Plus it has Babe Ruth as himself, in all his Bronx Bomber glory, so the curio factor should be piqued immediately. The most famous of Lloyd’s films, “Safety Last” (’23) is the centerpiece of Volume One, and features a commentary track by Lloyd fan Leonard Maltin, explaining just how Harold hung onto that clock face, seemingly thirty stories above a busy L.A. street, but my favorite of his films, and what I believe to be his best, is “The Kid Brother”, made in 1925, the same year Chaplin made “The Gold Rush”, both of which made unheard of amounts of money in the booming pre-depression days of the studio system. Like Keaton, Lloyd was particularly concerned with sight gags, and “The Kid Brother” features one of his best; as a villain backs Harold up against a ship’s wall, he repeatedly raps him on the head with an iron bar, but nothing happens to Harold, only the bar bends into a curve, baffling the audience and the villain alike, until seconds later Harold moves, revealing an unseen pipe that was cradling the top of his skull. Comedic timing has never been so visually hilarious, and Lloyd’s comedy is filled with gorgeous shots like this, so if you want to throw in your two cents about who was really the master silent comedian of the three (Keaton gets most of the credit from historians, but Lloyd will always get my vote), than check out this reasonably priced ($62 on Amazon) set of silent film treasures.
9. Ken Burns: This has nothing to do with the fall, or any new DVD release, but recently I’ve found myself drawn back to Ken Burns, and I thought it might be worth mentioning his previous two films, just for Netflix recommendation purposes. His most recent triumph was 2004’s “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson”, a three and a half hour tour de force of turn of the century race examination by way of profiling the most famous black man of the day, heavy-weight title winner, and general free spirit Jack Johnson, whose gift for boxing, and brash attitude towards authority, ruffled many feathers in a Jim Crow America not used to backtalk from an African-American, 40 years after the war. Like in all of his documentaries on the American Experience, Burns culls an amazing amount of archival footage of Johnson, and mixes it with lively modern interviews of historians and boxing fans (James Earl Jones, who played Johnson on stage and screen in “The Great White Hope” is one of many interesting interviewed personalities), to shape a duel portrait of racism and the history of boxing, while staying true to its title, thoroughly discussing the glories, and eventual decline of the first black boxing champ. Less thorough, but just as entertaining is “Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip” (’03), a short (by Burns standards) two-hour documentary about Horatio Nelson Jackson, who, in 1903, on a bet, drove his 20-horsepower Winton from San Francisco to New York in 65 days, thus opening eyes to the fact that maybe, with proper construction and planning, the American frontier wasn’t just limited to trains and train schedules. Here Burns recreates the exhaustive, problem filled trip through archival snapshots and letters written by Nelson to his wife (read by the familiar voice of Tom Hanks), and tells the story of a determined auto enthusiast, a treacherous route, and the historical growth of the most important invention this side of electric light, the automobile. Burns is THE great visual chronicler of American history, and these two films easily stack up with his longer epics like “Baseball”, “Jazz”, and the monumental “Civil War”.
8. New Movies: You might be wondering why, with three new movies in the theaters, I’m spending my weekend on a compilation piece, and it’s a legitimate question, so I’ll answer. The 50 Cent fictionalization “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” has received little praise, so I figured I’d skip it altogether, and since the similarly themed “Hustle and Flow” is still my choice as the year’s best film, there’s only room in my heart right now for one triumphant rapper’s story. Jennifer Aniston’s “Derailed” looked like a generic thriller, despite Aniston and Clive Owen’s apparent heated chemistry, and “Zathura”, while praised as imaginative, couldn’t interest me less, especially since I didn’t care for its prequel “Jumanji” all that much, and with the new ‘Harry Potter’ and “Walk the Line” starting this weekend, a week away from the theater is acceptable. In correction, last week I reviewed “The Squid and the Whale”, thinking it was opening, but I was wrong, just in case you noticed, so I apologize, and if you want to reread the piece when it does open in the coming weeks, check it out online; it’s a good movie, and I hope it doesn’t get lost in the holiday shuffle.
7. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: Released last month to much acclaim, this Martin Scorsese documentary on the early years of Dylan’s career is a treasure trove of brilliant folk music, and a professional study of one of our most famous musicians. Framing the story from 1961 to 1966 with new interviews with the likes of Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Liam Clancy, and Allen Ginsberg, Scorsese cuts the chronological advancement of Woody Guthrie obsessed Dylan from Greenwich Village Beat shops to folk festivals, such as the famed Newport festival of ’63, with a particularly rambling 1966 performance in London, where the audience turns on his newly formed backup band, and his electric guitar distortions of his folk classics. Musically, I don’t think Dylan stacks up with The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but as a symbol of rebellion and change, he was to the ‘60’s what Elvis was to the ‘50’s, and Scorsese’s documentary captures that period with vivid clarity, filled with lots of spirit, and tons of great music to boot.
6. Tell Them Who You Are: This documentary, recently released on DVD, examines the career of two-time Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler through the lens of his middle aged journalist son Mark, and instead of a straightforward bio, we get a film about a son trying to please his famous dad, and come to terms with their rocky relationship. Haskell Wexler is probably the most famous cinematographer of the New Hollywood (his rare directing credits include “Medium Cool”, a politically charged docu-fiction filmed during the ’68 Chicago Convention riots), and Mark makes sure we understand that, but his primary focus is on relationships, especially relationships between famous fathers and their children (interviews with Martin Sheen, Michael Douglas, and Jane Fonda help), and you get the sense that the son Wexler is making this film less out of appreciation for his dad’s work, and more as a therapeutic tool into relating to the man’s previous neglect, by way of his own craft, filmmaking. This film is powerful, often moving, and well edited, but the DVD’s one false step is an epilogue in which father Wexler is taped watching the film for the first time, resulting in a weepy moment where the two cry out their emotions. It seems like a logical answer, but the film itself works without the melodramatic resolution, and though it’s nice to know Haskell now appreciates his son’s work, it feels tacked on, but otherwise, this is a good rental choice, if you can find it.
5. Cancelled TV Shows: Those who have followed my TV reviews know I tend to hold long, bitter grudges against networks that cancel great shows (Fox and “Futurama”, NBC and “Boomtown”), and it’s justified, but the recent cancellation of FX’s ever-strengthening “Over There”, and Fox’s utterly hilarious “Arrested Development” is unforgivable. Yes, I know Fox should be applauded for even giving us another season, short as it may be, of “Arrested Development”, given it’s very poor ratings, but wouldn’t it be nice to have such a great show stick around despite ratings, just for the sake of good comedy? God knows on a channel that harbors “Stacked”, “The War at Home”, and “That 70’s Show”, good comedy is at a premium. As for FX, a channel that prides itself on their gutsy original programming, the cancellation of “Over There”, the brutal and highly emotional Iraq War drama, seems like a cop out, bowing to decreasing ratings, and criticism that fictional death was somehow unjustified in the face of real life death. I don’t buy that, because after all, was there not death in all of those glorious WWII movies in the ‘40’s, movies that entertained a nation during it’s greatest military triumph? The difference is all in the perception of the war on the national consciousness, and right now, unfortunately for the great, lost drama, that perception is very negative.
4. DVD Releases by Criterion: For the film buff in your life, here are a few Christmas gift suggestions from The Criterion Collection’s recent releases. Just out last week is a beautiful double-disk, re-mastered edition of Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterpiece “Ugetsu”, from 1953, a film equally as important as Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” in bringing Japanese film to Western popularity in the ‘50’s. Mizoguchi, of the big three (Kurosawa and Ozu being the other two), is virtually nowhere to be seen these days on DVD, but now that his most respected work is out, I’m hoping lesser known gems like “Sansho the Bailiff” and “The Story of Oharu” make it to DVD soon, hopefully with all the bells and whistles given to the “Ugetsu” release. “Ugetsu” is the cream of the crop now, but also consider recent deluxe editions of French essentials “Pickpocket” (’59), Robert Bresson’s influential, deceptively simple petty crime drama, and “Le Samourai” (’67), J.P. Melville’s ultra smooth noir starring Alain Delon as a hit man, in his finest, most existential performance. Upcoming releases of Kurosawa’s Learian “Ran”, Hamletian “The Bad Sleep Well”, Bunuel’s scathing satire “Viridiana”, and Alec Guinness’ all-time great “Kind Hearts and Coronets” only further enhances my opinion that Criterion is king, and everybody else, even Warner Brothers (just slightly), pale in comparison when it comes to DVD presentation of important cinematic milestones.
3. Shopgirl: Claire Danes should be on the short list for a Best Actress nomination for “Shopgirl”, a drama about a bored Saks Fifth Avenue clerk who is wooed by two men, one rich and charming, the other poor and bumbling. Steve Martin plays the wealthy man, who tells his shrink he’s basically using the younger woman for sex (that’s a lie and he knows it), and Jason Schwartzman is the broke amplifier salesman who loves the girl, but is ill equipped to show just how much, and they both give fine performances, especially Martin, getting away from silly comedy that he’ll quickly fall back into this winter with “The Pink Panther” and “Cheaper By the Dozen 2”, but this quietly sad, sometimes cold film is an ode to the beauty of Claire Danes, and she is the best thing about it. Visually more sophisticated than your average Hollywood romantic melodrama (it has Indy sensibilities that are noticeable from first time director Anand Tucker), and well written by Martin, adapting his short novel, with an unfortunate, unnecessary voice-over track, “Shopgirl” is all about the awkwardness of love, the sometimes cruel misunderstandings of human relationships, and the spiritual growth resulting in one’s first great heartbreak.
2. Jarhead: Sam Mendes, who tackled American suburban boredom in “American Beauty”, directs this grueling tale of military ennui as a handful of soldiers wait, and wait, and wait some more for action during the stages in the desert leading up to the first Gulf War. Jake Gyllenhaal, a potential Oscar contender, is in nearly every scene as sniper Anthony Swofford, who narrates his experiences in “The Suck” as if it were 200 days of watching paint dry, with the added bonus of 112 degree training sessions, latrine duty, and constant paranoia over whether his girlfriend back home is being faithful while he’s out to “war”. Mendes’ film is unconventional in that it’s a war film with very little war action, and when the soldiers finally see combat, Swofford and his buddy Troy (Peter Sarsgaard, also a potential Oscar nominee) get lost in the desert and miss out on the prized possession; a genuine kill. Some have criticized the film’s existential trappings, but I think it’s a provocative new way of filming an old format, and with Roger Deakins’ brilliant cinematography capturing the nightmarish oil fire night times, “Jarhead” is one of the year’s most astonishing films to behold. If the backend of the holiday season disappoints, Mendes and his film might be ripe for big Oscar nods, if voters are willing to invest in a difficult examination of man as fighter, man as animal, and man as, most importantly, with nothing to do, quiet thinker.
1. Lost: Maybe I’ve said this before, but I don’t mind repeating myself in this instance, but I’m currently obsessed with this ABC hit, and now six episodes deep into its unbelievable stunning second season, I can’t stop talking about it. Last week’s episode, which promised a death, and delivered, in a shocking finale that saw Shannon (Maggie Grace) accidentally shot by tail-end bad girl Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), was a season high, even if the loss of Shannon, who we were finally getting to understand, is hard to take. Silly me who thought episode three’s orientation film would be the year’s most shocking two-minutes (it’s still the most informative though), but apparently that was only the tip of the island, an island that’s getting stranger and stranger as the days go by. With the introduction of four new characters – the Lockian strongman Mr. Ecko (“Oz’s” Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Rose’s lost husband Bernard (Sam Anderson), the psychologist Libby (Cynthia Watros), and the snotty Ana-Lucia, who has garnered much scorn from message board devotees – this season is progressing with more possibilities for new flashback fodder, and increasing island mystery. Who exactly are the Others, and what is their relationship to the husband/wife scientist team in the orientation film? What is up with Walt? Where did Desmond go? When will Danielle return? And will we see the missing pieces to that crazy, much discussed Dharma filmstrip? I don’t have the answers, and the way “Lost” works, we may not even get them this season, but that’s half the fun of watching the best show on TV continually find new ways to baffle its hooked, salivating fan base, and work its way from one new mystery to the next.
by Adam Suraf