I Am The Walrus (#24: The Big Lebowski)

When did it become uncool to like The Eagles? Or hip to hate them? I don't get it.

 

On this, the Dude and I disagree. I Can't Tell You Why (see what I did there?).

The Dude and I agree on beverages, however. Believe it or not, I wasn't much of a beer drinker back when I first started drinking. Thankfully, I had the Dude to guide me. And White Russians did right by me for quite a long while. I have yet to drink sarsaparilla, Sioux City or otherwise. But thanks, anyway, Dude.

#24: The Big Lebowski

"Obviously, you're not a golfer."

On the heels of the film which would widely be regarded as their masterpiece, Fargo (we'll get there eventually), the Coen Brothers released what seemed at the time to be a disappointing and aggressively minor stoner comedy. But time has been kind to The Big Lebowski, which now has its own fan fests held at (you guessed it) bowling alleys countrywide. And for good reason.

 

Jeff Bridges (who wouldn't get an Oscar until Crazy Heart, many years after his best role) is iconic as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (or "His Dudeness" or "El Duderino" if you're not into the whole brevity thing). The Dude lives in Gulf War I era Los Angeles. Unemployed and fond of his j's, the Dude leads a simple life. He likes to roll in a local bowling league with his buddies, the Vietnam-obsessed shabbos observer Walter Sobchak (John Goodman, also iconic) and the constantly out of his element Donny (Steve Buscemi). 

The film opens with a classic MacGuffin. Two unknown assailants, one a Chinaman (or Asian-American, to use the preferred nomenclature) confuse the Dude for some other Jeffrey Lebowski and piss on a rug that really tied the room together in the Dude's apartment. Convinced by Walter to not let sleeping dogs lie, the Dude tracks down the Big Lebowski (David Huddleston) to get his rug replaced. He winds up not just mixed up in the apparent kidnapping of the Big Lebowski's trophy wife, Bunny (Tara Reid), but (misadventures) involving German nihilist porno actors, the sexual hangups of one Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore, employing the anachronistic Mid-Atlantic film dialect to great effect), his landlord's lyrical dance concert, a 15 year old joy rider, and a fascist Malibu cop fond of hurling coffee cups. Oh yeah, and Sam Elliot shows up in full on cowboy mode to explain it all. Sort of.

Just from that description alone, you can gather that there's a complicated plot lurking underneath the film's stoner movie facade. Faithfully subverting the film noir genre while at the same time subtly lampooning 90's American culture is no small feat, but the Coen Brothers manage to pull it off. Not to mention that the movie is consistently hilarious and rewards repeat viewings with eminently quotable dialogue, such as:

Also, I found this while googling images for this review:

A movie that inspires something like that has to be good, right? I'd write more. But I'm going bowling instead.

Final verdict: KEEPER

Next: BLOW

This Isn't How It Happens (#23: Big Fish)

On a daytrip this weekend, we tuned into NPR (because we're latte-drinking-bleeding-heart-lefty-intellectual-type liberal stereotypes). First, we listened to The Moth, which is a show where people tell stories live in front of an audience. This particular episode featured recordings from "story slams," where regular audience members put their names in a hat to speak. It was pretty mesmerizing to listen to people be brutally eloquent, good humored but unsparing about their own lives.

 

Following that, an episode of This American Life. This particular episode was about how children arrive at perfectly logical but perfectly wrong conclusions about the world. It started with an anecdote about a little girl who believed her friend's dad was the tooth fairy for years because her friend told her she saw him put the tooth fairy's present under her pillow. (In a terrific touch, her parents left her notes "signed" by her friend's dad with the dollar or whatever the tooth fairy left after she told them the tooth fairy's secret identity.) Next, they discussed a study done by researchers where a child is told to pretend there was either a puppy or a monster in an empty box. After the child acknowledges that there is no puppy or monster in the box, the researcher leaves the room. You can guess what happens: the kids told to imagine a puppy sneak a peek inside the box; the kids told to imagine a monster steer well clear of it.

 

I couldn't help but think of both of these radio shows while watching our next movie.

 

Mm..frozen time circus popcorn.

#23: Big Fish

 

Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor/Albert Finney), in his own telling, was a giant in a small world. One day, he meets an actual giant, Karl (Matthew McGrory - actually 7'6" tall, which is kind of giant) and together, they head off for bigger and better things. Along the way, or so the story goes, Edward: sees his own death in the eye of a witch (Helena Bonham Carter); visits an ephemerally perfect town with one terrible poet (Steve Buscemi); joins a circus run by a slightly demented Danny DeVito (but when isn't he demented?); courts the girl of his dreams (Alison Lohman/Jessica Lange); goes MIA while in the service (stealing away a pair of singing Siamese twins from behind enemy lines in the process); unwittingly assists in a bank robbery; and loses his wedding ring in a very big fish, causing him to miss the birth of his only son, Will (Billy Crudup). Or so the stories go.

 

The vast majority of Big Fish's running time is dedicated to this complicated mythology Edward Bloom has built around his own life brick by brick in constant tellings and retellings around the dining room table, at weddings and other social occassions, really any time anyone would listen. But the "true" story of the film takes place in a more mundane world. Edward is old and dying. Will returns home out of duty, though he's tired of Edward and his well-worn yarns. Will, expecting his first child by his new wife (Marion Cotillard - who knew she was in this?), just wants to know the truth about his dad's life before he goes. Edward just wants to keep telling his stories until he can no longer. At the end, they find a way to finally get on the same page.

 

What could be a corny Hallmark movie turns into something much more interesting in the capable hands of director Tim Burton (side note: 4 out of  our first 23 movies are oddly Burton films) and a deep cast. Billy Crudup (where he been at?), particularly, keeps Will sympathetic and relatable, when the role could easily fall into whiny jerk territory. Both McGregor and Finney imbue Edward with undeniable charm (though McGregor's Alabama dialect is more than a little suspect). And Jessica Lange and Helena Bonham Carter are Jessica Lange and Helena Bonham Carter, which is to say very good.

 

Circling back to the This American Life episode discussed at top, the researchers found that at a certain age (I can't remember, but I think it was 6 or 7), the kids stopped looking in the box or scurrying away from "the monster" when the researchers left the room. The older kids reached a cognitive stage where the imaginary could be separated from the real. They might still imagine that puppy or monster in the box, but they stop wondering if it might really be there.

 

If Big Fish is about anything, it is about being able to, every now and then, accept those things you know are imaginary as the truth. Especially when what is imagined or embellished, like the stories told on that Moth episode, get at something true that reality simply can't convey on its own. Believe in that puppy or that monster, but you don't always need to look in the box. That's what art does. And maybe that's what our memories and our lives really are.

 

We both fully expected this to be a serious PITCH IT candidate, but judging by the tears at the end, we need to keep this unabashedly romantic dream of a movie.  

 

Final verdict: KEEPER.

 

Next Up: THE BIG LEBOWSKI.

American Bitches (#22: Best in Show)

#22: Best in Show

I mean, if there was nothing else worthwhile in this movie, it would still be worth owning for that scene alone, right? Jennifer Coolidge basically plays the same character in everything, but she's never been better.

Fortunately for us, Dear Readers, there's plenty more to enjoy in Best in Show than just that. Helmed by Mr. Jamie Lee Curtis himself, Baron Christopher Guest (Yes! Dude's a Baron! I had no idea! Thanks Interwebz!), Best in Show is a largely improvised comedy about the world of competitive dog-showing. Competing in the Mayflower Dog Show are: Coolidge, and her trainer/friend with benefits played by Jane Lynch (laying the foundation for her future Glee fame); 

Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey as the braces-laden couple from yuppie hell; 

Guest as a nut-and-ventriloquism-loving bloodhound owner; 

the well-known-in-the-biblical-sense Catherine O'Hara and the two-left-footed Eugene Levy; 

and Guest's Spinal Tap castmate, Michael McKean, as the better half of John Michael Higgins intentionally over the top shih tzu owner.

As you know, if you've seen any of these people in anything, they are hilarious.

But best of all is Fred Willard, who takes Bob Uecker's Major League schtick to a whole new level, as the hopelessly clueless dog show commentator:

Nobody tells bad jokes as well as Fred Willard. Although, admittedly, I couldn't help but think of his recent (ahem) sticky situation when his commentary ran a little on the blue side. Still, the man is brilliant. His commitment to absolute boorishness is amazing.

And that's the thing. This movie proves the old adage that comedy is just tragedy with timing. This friggin' dog show (of all things) is hilarious to us because it means so friggin' much to the characters on screen. These people are living and dying by their dog's ribbon placement. Their whole self-worth is wrapped up in whether Beatrice has her busy bee. If it wasn't, we just wouldn't care enough to laugh. But we do. Man, I could talk or not talk about this movie forever and still find things to not talk about.

Final Verdict: KEEPER!

Next Up: BIG FISH

Keaton, Unbound (#21: Beetlejuice)

Before we talk about our 21st film: let's talk Goulet. Yes, Robert Goulet.

The real Goulet has a supporting role in today's movie as a big shot Manhattan real estate developer. And like all things Goulet, he totally nails it. Goulet!

#21: Beetlejuice

Riding high on the success of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and with Batman in development, Tim Burton had the pick of the litter as far as next projects go in 1988. So what did he choose? A fantasy horror comedy about suburban ghosts trying to scare away some artsy fartsy yuppies, which features stop-motion animation sandworms, Harry Belafonte tunes, and Robert Goulet. Because of course.

A young, thin, and oddly costumed (seriously - who wears a black and white flannel shirt with a red undershirt and khakis?) Alec Baldwin plays Adam, the doting husband to Geena Davis' Barbara. Adam and Barbara are living the dream in a big country house in small town Connecticut. That is, until they die one day. They find themselves trapped at home, which would be fine, except for the new owners - the Deetzes, a relocated couple of Manhattan social climbers. Delia Deetz, played by the always-terrific Catherine O'Hara, quickly sets about remodeling the house in the most gauche manner possible, while her step-daughter, Lydia (a winningly morose Winona Ryder), makes friends with the ghosts upstairs. Adam and Barbara, neophytes to the haunting game, seek the assistance of a self-proclaimed "bio-exorcist" named Betelgeuse:

It's pronounced Beetlejuice. Go ahead, say it 3 times.

Things get a little out of hand.

According to Wikipedia, which is second only to graffiti on men's bathroom stalls in terms of accuracy, Burton initially wanted Sammy Davis, Jr. for the titular role. While that admittedly would be kind of awesome (in a grotesque, flaming car kind of way), it would have deprived the world of one the greatest comedic performances of all time. What else can I say but MICHAEL F'IN KEATON! Consider this scene:

I mean, come on. As Kenny Benya would say: "That's gold, Jerry. Gold." 

Keaton is an absolute force to be reckoned with in this movie. Hilarious, wild, disturbing, manic, and frightening. He owns every single minute he's on screen. Really, my only complaint is he isn't in the damn thing enough. If only Beetlejuice was featured in this as heavily as he is in the cartoon show that followed it! Bring on the long-rumored sequel: Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian! (Which is, I kid you not, supposedly still in development).

I'd go see a sequel. But there's gotta be KEATON in it. Or, I'm out.

Aside from KEATON's iconic performance, the film has a lot going for it. Burton hadn't yet let his art direction be the entire point of his movies, and his idiosyncratic eye just adds to the mood here. There are plenty of great touches, like the idea of the afterlife as a bureaucratic nightmare filled with suicide victims forced to work as civil servants for all eternity. 

Burton also elicits lively, game performances from the whole cast and gets the whole thing wrapped up in an hour and a half. It's tight, goofy, slightly scary but fun. Perfect palate cleanser for Halloweentime viewing.

Amelia's a bit more ambivalent about this one. She laughed uproariously at the scene embedded above but was otherwise more interested in her iPhone for much of the short running time. I think she's still getting over seeing this at a too-young age in theaters and getting scared and leaving.

(Side note: Our 3 and a half year old daughter, who has a thing for the macabre (she loves Nightmare Before Christmas and Paranorman), uttered several "oh goshes" while covering her mouth (her sign that she is scared) during this, but giggled a lot as well. I almost turned it off several times, feeling pangs of guilt for exposing her to such scares at a tender age, but she insisted on seeing what happened to Beetlejuice. I fear she's going to turn into Lydia Deetz).

Final Verdict: KEEPER

Next up: BEST IN SHOW 

He Can Make That Choice (#20: The Dark Knight Rises)

I wanted to write a long essay about The Dark Knight and #20: The Dark Knight Rises. I would talk about how they’re the only Batman movies which directly confront the inherently messy contradictions of Batman the character and how those contradictions are emblematic of America itself. Both have a bloody and messy origin story, crave stability, but never accept it. Both believe in law and order but are willing to go outside the lines, as needed. Both believe in the People, but also the Individual. Both hold out certain ideals as unassailable, knowing full well those ideals are unattainable, but worth holding onto nonetheless. But instead of writing a long essay, I wrote this paragraph. Isn’t that better?

(Also, I really do have a job. And two kids.)

Anyway, maybe we need a few hundred more viewings of each, to really get our thoughts together. In the meantime, yeah, they’re good.

Final Verdict: KEEPER!

Also, here’s a rundown of our first 20 (yes, 20 already!) verdicts (links to past reviews on the right):

NO.	TITLE	VERDICT
1	Ace Ventura	KEEP
2	Adaptation	KEEP
3	Adventures of Babysitting	KEEP
4	Air Force One	PITCH
5	In the Line of Fire	PITCH
6	Aliens	KEEP
7	Amelie	KEEP
8	American Beauty	PITCH
9	Anchorman	KEEP
10	Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery	PITCH
11	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	PITCH
12	Austin Powers in Goldmember	PITCH
13	Marvel’s The Avengers	KEEP
14	Alien	KEEP
15	The Aviator	PITCH
16	Batman	KEEP
17	Batman Returns	KEEP
18	Batman Begins	KEEP
19	The Dark Knight	KEEP
20	The Dark Knight Rises	KEEP

I'm admittedly a bit terrified that we've already watched twenty movies and have barely cracked the B's. This is gonna take a while.

NEXT UP: BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE! More KEATON!

Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn (#19: The Dark Knight)

#19: The Dark Knight 

I'm going to hold off my thoughts on Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, The Dark Knight,* until we watch its counterpart, The Dark Knight Rises. Needless to say, both are keepers. But I want to consider them together in one mega-post. In the mean time, I think the late great Heath Ledger said it best as the Joker:

*(You may have noticed a slight deviation from strict alphabetical order in the last few posts. Chronology trumps alphabet-ology for the time being.)

Fear Itself (#18: Batman Begins)

Confession: I have never read Batman: Year One (trivia! Darren Aronofsky, he of Black Swan fame, was at one point supposed to direct an adaptation of that book). Thus, I have no idea how much our eighteenth film, Batman Begins, differs from Frank Miller's version of how Bruce Wayne came to be Batman. I apologize, Constant Reader. This review will therefore be lacking in comic nerdom.

 

But anyway. How did Batman become Batman? Yeah, we all know his parents got shot in front of him and that's enough to piss anyone enough to turn them into a borderline psychotic crimefighter, but still, you got to get all those wonderful toys somewhere, right? And the know-how to use 'em?

 

Ken Watanabe as Ra's al Ghul

#18: Batman Begins

 

Christopher Nolan gives us a terrific answer: the League of Shadows. Run by Ra's al Ghul (fans of Batman the Animated Series will sorely be disappointed by no Lazarus Pits!) and his trusty second-hand Ducard (Liam Neeson), the League pulls Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) out of a hellhole of an Asian prison and sends him on quest for a special blue flower. Having obtained that flower, Wayne is permitted to train with the League of Shadows, learn how to be (essentially) a ninja vigilante, acknowledge and master his fear, and begin to appreciate the value of theatricality. Without spoiling anything (but really, who am I spoiling it for?), Wayne grows disenchanted with the League of Shadows ethos, returns to Gotham, "borrows" some very useful prototypes which would otherwise be gathering dust at Wayne Enterpries, and adopts the visage of his greatest fear to become the Batman. Battling first ordinary criminals like gangster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson (an inspired bit of out-of-left-field casting)), Batman is soon confronted with literal insanity in the form of the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy):

 

You wanna see my mask?

Not without its funny moments, but lacking much of the humor of Burton's duology (that's like trilogy but with only two, right?), Batman Begins is undoubtedly a grimmer take on the Batman legacy. In many respects, its more horror than action film, which is thematically coherent with the central idea of fear as driving force in the life of our protoganist and the city he loves. For your run-of-the-mill viewer Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul aren't at the top of the rogue's gallery of Batman's villians, but they make perfect sense with the theme and ideas Nolan is playing with here. (Not to mention the central role both will play in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.) 

 

Although Bale is no Keaton (or as I call him, MICHAEL F'IN' KEATON), his sullen, humorless-unless-its-for-show Wayne (admittedly) makes more character sense, especially with the mood and atmosphere Nolan is going for. (Or "for which Nolan is going," for the grammar sticklers). He's capably supported by Michael Caine (Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), and man-of-many-faces Gary Oldman (Gordon). (I'm forbidden by hometown loyalty to comment on fellow Toledoan Katie Holmes' performance, but let's just say Maggie Gyllenhaal).

 

I'd say more, but I'd rather watch our next movie: THE DARK KNIGHT.

 

Final verdict: KEEPER.