Since we’re at the All-Star break, it’s time to take another look at my list of 10 Best Baseball Movies.
movie gourmet
Le Quattro Volte: that Italian goatherd movie you’ve been demanding
In the first 30 minutes of Le Quattro Volte, a septuagenarian goatherd struggles up and down a Calabrian mountain with his goats, hacking away with a worsening old man cough. Up and down go the goats. Cough, cough goes the old man.
Then, suddenly (and I mean suddenly), a baby goat is born. It is licked by its mother. It hangs out with other young goats. It walks off with the herd.
Then, a tall tree on the mountain is cut down by the villagers and erected in the village for a festival. After the festival, it is taken down and cut up.
The logs are added to a woodpile that we see constructed in the traditional way, and charcoal is made. Then the movie ends.
I understand that Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life. Indeed, I really tried to give myself to this movie, to settle in and absorb its rhythm. But the stories are not compelling enough. When I saw the movie at an afternoon show, audience members were falling asleep. My mind was wandering.
Le Quattro Volte has received very high praise from some of the most respected movie critics, who found it mesmerizing. It also won the Best European Film award at Cannes, causing another theater patron at my screening to ask “Who voted?”. It’s an art movie with the art, but no movie.
Project Nim: a chimp learns the foibles of humans
The documentary Project Nim tells the extraordinary story of a chimpanzee that was taught a human language – American Sign Language. In a remarkable and compelling journey, the chimp Nim is first placed as a baby with a human hippie family and then at a university-owned country estate and college laboratories. Amazingly, he learns to use an ASL vocabulary – not just responding to commands, but initiating communication and forming sentences. Then, the experiment ends, and he is off to an assortment of post-placements, some terrifying.
Along the way, we hear from the motley assortment of humans involved in his raising, his exploitation and his care. One human who enters the story as a grad student, Bob Ingersoll, emerges as the hero of the story. It’s the story of a chimp, but we learn more about the foibles of humans.
Acclaimed documentarian James Marsh (Man on Wire) delivers another great story – one of the year’s best documentaries.
Movies to See Right Now
This week, the best choices are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful Beginners and Midnight in Paris. This week’s Project Nim is one of the year’s best documentaries. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
For trailers and other choices,see Movies to See Right Now.
You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick is Another Year. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) has brought us another brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot. Another Year is one of Leigh’s best, and on my list of Best Movies of 2010.
Turkey Bowl: touch football brings out the laughs
This delightful indie comedy is set in a group of friends’ annual touch football game. Take a bunch of friends that haven’t seen each other for a while and put them in a competitive situation, and you’ve got a promising premise. Newcomer writer-director Kyle Smith pulls off a tight, well-paced 62 minutes of smart laughs.
The cast of relative unknowns is very good, especially Tom DiMenna and Bob Turton. At the screening that I attended, Smith said that the football game was tightly structured in the screenplay, but much of the dialogue was improvised by the cast.Smith financed the film with $25,000 that he earned from a reality TV show, and shot it over ten days in an East LA city park.
Smith is a native of Columbia, Missouri, and college football fans will note a very funny reference to an infamous Colorado-Missouri game.
Turkey Bowl just released on iTunes and VOD. Reward this bright and enterprising filmmaker and see this film – you won’t be disappointed.
I am adding Turkey Bowl to my list of Best Sports Movies to represent touch football.
DVD of the Week: Another Year
Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) has brought us another brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot. The film observes a year in the life of a happily married couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen). They generously host their friends and family; the couple (and we the audience) pick up insights about the visitors – variously scarred by unhappy circumstance, cluelessness and self-destructiveness.
Mike Leigh may be the cinema’s best director of actors, and Another Year is filled with excellent performances, especially Broadbent and Sheen, David Bradley and Peter Wight. The wonderful Imelda Staunton drops in with a searing cameo at the beginning of the film. But Lesley Manville has the flashiest role – and gives the most remarkable performance – as a woman whose long trail of bad choices hasn’t left her with many options for a happy life.
Another Year is one of Leigh’s best, and on my list of Best Movies of 2010.
Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo teaser
Another take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo releases on December 21. It’s a gripping story and, boy, am I looking forward to the version by David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network). Here’s the teaser, featuring a remix of Led Zep’s Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O. Unfortunately, the teaser contains about 150 cuts in 100 seconds, very few of which show the stars, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. But Sweden still looks gray and forbidding!
The Movie Gourmet hits the all-you-can-eat buffet
It was a perfect storm. Lots of important movies were opening where I live. The Wife was out-of-town. And my buddy Kiefer was game to join me. It was time for the all-you-can-eat buffet of movie-going – five movies in 48 hours!
We started on Friday night by catching Super 8 at San Jose’s Camera 12. We were both impressed with authenticity of the coming of age story embedded in the sci-fi thriller. Good start!
Saturday morning, we drove to San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center Cinema for the noon show of Beginners. Home run! We both loved this smart and original comedy by Mike Mills. Christopher Plummer will certainly get an Oscar nod. I rated it as one of the year’s best.
We jumped in a cab to make the 2:30 show of Le Quattro Volte at the Lumiere. The cabbie knows most of the San Francisco Giants – and even two of their moms; he keeps a box of baseballs in the front seat for autographs.
We settled in for Le Quattro, the Italian goatherd movie and a critical fave. An aged goatherd moves his goats up and down a hill, coughing as he goes. The next day, he does the same, only coughing more. Suddenly, a young goat is born, starts to grow up and gets lost. Here’s where Kiefer fell asleep. Then the villagers cut down a tall tree for a festival. After the festival, it is added to a pile of wood that becomes charcoal. I get that it is intended to comment on The Circle of Life, but I found it less a tranquil and profound reflection than an eye-glazing bore. After the screening, other patrons were asking who voted this Best of Europe?
Okay – back to the Embarcadero for an early dinner at San Francisco’s oldest restaurant The Tadich Grill. Cioppino still awesome!
Now we needed to drive back to San Jose for the 7:15 PM show of The Tree of Life. We got stuck in San Francisco Giants traffic, and we’d never make it to San Jose in time. Never fear, some Blackberry surfing in the car revealed a 7:15 show in Palo Alto that we COULD make.
So we got to the Palo Alto Square CineArts in time for The Tree of Life. This screening was packed. We were both stunned, and most of the crowd stumbled out mumbling something like “What the hell was THAT?”. Kiefer and I were laughing – even after we had mentally cut out all of the Sean Penn scenes, we were still trying to figure out whether Tree of Life was worse than the Italian goatherd movie.
Sunday morning, we have breakfast and amble into my 10:30 AM Camera Cinema Club at The Camera 7 in Campbell. This month’s Club selection was Turkey Bowl, a delightful indie comedy set in a group of friends’ annual touch football game. It is a mere 62 minutes, but loaded with laughs. After the screening, we heard writer-director Kyle Smith tell how he financed the film with $25,000 that he earned from a reality TV show, and shot it over ten days in an East LA city park.
So, all-in-all, we had a very rich film experience sampling indies, art films, a mini-blockbuster, foreign cinema, the most accessible movies and the most obtuse. Doesn’t get any better.
Patriotic Movies for the 4th of July
I haven’t found any other acceptable lists of patriotic movies. Other lists tend to be less patriotic and more jingoistic and nationalistic, less about celebrating the essential American values and triumphs (sometimes triumphs over ourselves) than about dominating some furriners in war or sport. That’s why Top Gun and Miracle show up on those lists, but not on mine.
Throughout our history, American patriots have taken risks and made sacrifices for ideas and causes greater than themselves. Here are ten movies that celebrate such authentic patriotism: 10 Patriotic Movies.
Movies to See Right Now
This week, the best choices are the sweet, funny and thoughtful Beginners and Midnight in Paris. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles.
In Beginners, Ewan McGregor plays a guy who tends to the depressive and sabotages his relationships. His father (Christopher Plummer) has just died after coming out of the closet at age 75. Can he make things work out with Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds)?
Woody Allen’s sweet and smart Midnight in Paris is his best comedy in twenty-five years. Owen Wilson accompanies fiancée Rachel McAdams to Paris, where she is intrigued by pretentious blowhard Michael Sheen, leaving Wilson to explore midnight Paris and time travel back to the Paris of the Lost Generation.
13 Assassins is brilliantly staged and photographed, and is one of the best recent action films; an honorable samurai must assemble and lead a team of thirteen to hack their way through a psychotically sadistic noble’s 200 bodyguards.
In The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take a foodie road trip through the north of England and duel with their Michael Caine and Sean Connery impressions.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best.
The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough.
Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
For trailers and other choices,see Movies to See Right Now.
You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick is the British terrorist farce Four Lions.