My Absolute Favoritest Movie of 2011 - Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive

It's only September but I won't be seeing a better movie this year. I love it like family.

David Fincher's The Social Network or: This is why I should never pick a "Favorite Movie of the Year"

David Fincher's The Social Network is so far and away the best movie I saw from 2010 that it really makes me question why I even go to the trouble of picking a "Best Movie" of the year every year. I originally chose Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World as my favorite and, credit to me, I did state at the beginning of that piece that I hadn't seen several of the other best movie contenders that were out there. Well, now I see why I did that. The Social Network is not only my favorite movie from 2010 but I'd go so far as to say that it's one of the best movies of the last decade along with Fincher's other masterpiece, 2007's Zodiac.

Lesson learned.

My Favoritest Movie of 2010 - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Firast off, let me say that I have yet to see a TON of movies that came out in 2010 that I think look great: Black Swan, The Social Network, True Grit, Amer, Animal Kingdom, the list goes on and on. The days of me seeing every current movie I possibly can are over with. Nowadays I usually catch the ones I'm interested in on Netflix, DVD, HBO, cable, etc. If in two months time I watch Black Swan and love it so much that I declare it my new Best Of 2010 movie then so be it. As of this moment, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is my favoritest movie of 2010. I almost can't comprehend how much I adore it. I'll tell you when I really and truly KNOW that I love a movie...It's when, deep down inside, I wish that I'd made the movie. I WISH THAT I MADE SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD.

I love the characters and their respective actors, I love everything that Edgar Wright does behind the camera, I love the music, I love it's kinetic, pulsating, throbbing, tangible energy, I love it's sweetness, I love everything about it. Let me also add that, in my humble opinion, this is the best movie that's been adapted from another source that I've ever seen. If you've read the Scott Pilgrim books then you've pretty much seen the movie, and vice versa. That's not a knock against the movie either because Scott Pilgrim is one of the most entertaining graphic novels ever written. When your source material is that good, why change it? I can't imagine anybody that loved the books not loving this movie. I can't imagine it.

So, there you have it, my favoritest movie of 2010. Even though I saw it in March of 2011. Oh well.

The one and only Tura Satana

Thriller – en grym film + Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy = a two-fisted Molotov cocktail of pure ass-kickery

Thriller – A Cruel Picture is a 1973 Swedish exploitation film which, for my money, is one of the absolute best genre films ever made and truly a nasty little piece of work, especially if you see the uncut version which, for a few scenes at least, splices in some hardcore pornography.

Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy is one of my favorite songs of all time. To my knowledge it's never been used in a motion picture before. Until now.

You know how The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz sync up if you play them at the same time? This is the same idea but my version. Mine doesn't work anywhere near as beautifully as that one but I'm limited to what's available on youtube. The song isn't even six minutes long and the clip from Thriller is a good fifteen so the effect doesn't last too long but I think it's really cool. So sit back, hit the two play buttons at the same time, and enjoy.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Let's talk about something important, shall we. Let's talk about violence, the word and the act. Let's talk about Russ Meyer's classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!



The first and, to this day, only time I've ever seen Pussycat (in it's entirety) was on July 22nd, 1995 at 3:30 PM in Auditorium #1 at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights. I know because I still have the stub. I'm not going to talk about specific scenes or anything like that but I do want to convey what it is that made me fall absolutely head over heels in love with this movie. First, let me establish that, obviously, I love old movies. My favorite movie of all time is Casablanca and seeing/sharing it with Sarah a few years back at the Lakewood public library was probably the greatest moment of my movie going life. The reason I even bring it up is because, when you mention an "old" movie nowadays, depending on who you're talking to, you'll either get an absolutely blank stare or a friend for life. Faster Pussycat was made in 1965 and it's one of those rare movies that's absolutely timeless yet...still of it's time, if you know what I mean. The only thing that dates it now is the absolute and utter lack of any and all silicone/surgery on any of the actresses and the simple fact that it's black and white. That's it. Women in movies don't look like that anymore. Not that they ever really did I guess, except in Russ Meyer movies.



You plop somebody down in front of Faster Pussycat right now and, if they don't know anything about it, I swear they'll think it was a "new" movie. If that person you're showing it to is properly awesome enough that is. There's this kinetic energy and vitality about it you just didn't see with movies from that time period. Hell, you rarely see it now and here we are talking about 1965 for crying out loud! Up until that point you never saw a movie edited THAT way. Sure, studios knew enough to cut trailers that way (they had to get you excited for the movie after all) but you NEVER saw a movie that was cut the way a trailer was cut. It just didn't happen. You could maybe make a case for Kenneth Anger's early stuff as far as editing goes but those were really just experimental shorts. Not to take anything away from Anger's many achievements. I mean, he was the first person I know of that cut movies to musical beats and this was long before Scorsese had even heard of N.Y.U. film school. Check out Scorpio Rising on youtube for a better idea of what I'm talking about. Three things about Meyer though. 1. He fetishized the female form about as much as Anger fetishized the male form. 2. Not counting The Bostweeds infectious theme to Pussycat, he didn't use "popular" music. 3. Meyer's energy is what set him apart from Anger although Anger did his stuff over 15 years before Meyer. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. The whole point is that Meyer edited Pussycat with a freakin' hacksaw and that's one of the reasons why it's just as exciting to watch today as it was almost 45 years ago.



It's one of those movies where, as you're watching it, you're having an absolute fucking blast! You're laughing, you're clapping, you're wanting Tura Satana to kick EVERYBODY'S ass!



If you've never seen it keep checking Turner Classic Movies Underground. It's Friday nights at around 2 AM and, every so often (once or twice a year) they'll play Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Of course, I miss it every freakin' time so, if you ever see it on there give me a jingle and let me know, just in case. Then sit back and have fun because you most definitely will.

BEST MOVIE OF 2009

I don't like picking one movie and calling it "the best of..." anything. Movie critics get paid to do it. Me, I do it because, in this particular case, I loved one movie a whole helluva lot more than any other movie I saw in 2009 and that movie is Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Basterds runs about 153 minutes. From the second the movie starts until the final credit rolls it is absolute perfection. There is not a second that went by that I honestly felt anything other than pure cinematic joy.

Two sequences I want to write about. First, the opening fifteen minutes or so. I cannot overstate how absolutely amazing and perfect Waltz is. He is the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing here but he is SUCH a charasmatic and charming little fucking wolf. The look on his face as he watches Shosanna run away and Tarantino's slow zoom coupled with that perfect choice of music is just so exciting! The entire opening reminds me of Leone's McBain massacre scene from Once Upon A Time In The West but in Tarantino's world he has Henry Fonda (Waltz) come into the house first and having a long, drawn out conversation with McBain before blowing everybody away.

Tarantino builds up the tension using only dialogue and one particularly effective De Palma-like tracking shot. Both scenes pulse with a raw energy you don't see in alot of movies nowadays, which seem comatose in comparison.

Sequence two is a little more expansive. The entire third act or so, Revenge of the Giant Face if I'm not mistaken. At this point we're watching several stories within the movie collide head on. Shosanna at some point films a "movie" with her boyfriend. The entire reason WHY and HOW she does this is explained in such simple detail. I think most directors would've probably cut this whole thing out entirely. Quentin leaves it in. He doesn't want that "giant face" to be just another generic "surprise" like most movies would have. No. By showing you the minutiae of these events he's showing you how absolutely driven these characters are. When that "big head" finally reveals itself it is the catharsis of the entire movie being played out to the sights and sounds of Nazi massacre and it's absolutely electric.