Film Junk

Open Forum Friday: Is Twilight Setting a Bad Example for Young Women?

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:47:39 +0000

Alright, bear with me on this one. I know most of our readers are guys and probably don't have a lot of interest in The Twilight Saga, but like it or not, it's here, it's successful, and it's not going away anytime soon. Some guys seem to feel it is their manly duty to disparage the franchise at every turn, even if they know nothing about it. Personally I think that women deserve the opportunity to fawn over their own movie franchises just as fanboys geek out over comic book movies. But are there genuinely good reasons to rally against Twilight, based on the messages it sends to young women? There's no question that teens are the target demographic for Twilight, and as such, a lot of people have been considering the many ways that the books and movies could influence some of the young girls who buy them. Sure, there are some possibly dangerous ideas being thrown around here, in particular, New Moon romanticizes the idea of suicide, and also Bella's obsession over a borderline abusive boyfriend. (Serena Whitney provides a handful of other criticisms in her Reel Truth column over at Killer Film.) On the other hand, some make note of the fact that the movie preaches abstinence, and that is probably a positive thing. Ultimately, you could also view the series is as nothing more than harmless escapist fantasy as well, something that is neither good nor bad (most guys would argue the same about violent action movies). What do you think? Is Twilight bombarding teenage girls with bad advice on love and relationships, or are there worthwhile life lessons here as well? Is it unlikely to significantly influence its fans, or does the young age of its target audience make them more susceptible? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.

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The Movie Club Podcast #15: A.I. and Prince of Darkness

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:12:52 +0000

The Movie Club Podcast is a monthly roundtable podcast where we select two movies to dissect, analyze and discuss with a group of fellow movie bloggers and film fans. After four long months of scheduling difficulties, Jay and I finally managed to sit down with Kurt and Andrew from Row Three to record the latest episode of The Movie Club Podcast. This time around, we engage in a pretty lengthy discussion about Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, two movies that aren't really related in any way, aside from the fact that they're both a lot of fun to talk about! In order to listen, head over to The Movie Club Podcast website (linked below) to grab the MP3, or simply update your feed in iTunes. Don't forget to join in the conversation by leaving your thoughts in the comments over there, and also cast a vote for other movies to feature an upcoming episode. The next episode will be Walter Hill's The Warriors and Martin Scorsese's After Hours.

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Film Junk Poll: What is the Best Nicolas Cage Movie?

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:52:10 +0000

Alright folks, it's time to settle this once and for all! In recent years it has become almost too easy to hate on Nicolas Cage, and I'll be the first to admit that he's starred in some pretty spectacular crap lately. But let's not forget, the man won an Oscar back in '96, and as Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans proves, he can turn in a great performance under the right circumstances. One thing's for sure: he's certainly not afraid to take risks. Below I have selected a list of some of his most noteworthy films, and I pose this question to you: which one is his best work to date? Cast your vote and then feel free to discuss the merits of these and other Nic Cage films in the comments.

Online Surveys & Market Research

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Steven Spielberg Teaming with Stephen King for Under The Dome TV Series

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:03:47 +0000

I was lucky enough to get an invite from my friend Mike to go check out a special event with Stephen King last night in Toronto where David Cronenberg was conducting an informal interview with him on stage. The event was to promote King's new book Under The Dome, but they talked about plenty of other things including King's upcoming comic book series American Vampire, a screenplay he just wrote for Cell, and the fact that he's thinking about writing a sequel to The Shining (no, really). Although I can't really call myself a hardcore Stephen King fan, I have to admit that it's pretty crazy that he's written as many books as he has, and he's still coming up with interesting new material today. Under The Dome is about all the madness that ensues when an invisible force field suddenly materializes around a small town in Maine, cutting them off from the outside world. Considering its length, it seems more well-suited for adaptation to a TV series and that's exactly what King is going to do... with the help of Steven Spielberg! Dreamworks TV have picked up the rights to Under The Dome, and will be developing it as an "event series", probably for cable. I guess that means HBO might still be the ones to broadcast it, as had been previously reported. I don't know if I'll get around to reading the book anytime soon, but I think the concept is great and I'm definitely looking forward to this. Anyone out there reading the book right now? Will it make for a great HBO series?

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Movie Theatre Popcorn is Still Bad for You

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:03:32 +0000

1,200 calories (and that's without the butter!)... you know, just in case you were wondering.

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Good Hair Review

Goon — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Good Hair Directed by: Jeff Stilson Starring: Chris Rock, Nia Long, Ice-T, Al Sharpton, Maya Angelou, Eve, Tracie Thoms I have more rap albums than I have black friends on Facebook, and I don't have that many rap albums. There is and has always been a lot of black culture that I can only understand so much, but I never really thought about hair's role. It seems so simple - you grow it, you dye it, you straighten it, you comb it - hair just happens, and I had never bothered to think about dreadlocks or cornrows or even afros beyond the stylistic choice. With this in mind, I was confused about who Good Hair is targeted to. Is it an expose of controversial issues to spur change within the black community, or is it just opening the door into a world someone like me knows nothing about? The premise of this documentary involves Chris Rock investigating a question from his daughter: "Why don't I have good (read: Farrah Fawcett-ish, flowing, not nappy) hair?". This leads him on a Michael Moore-ish journey through the $9 billion black hair industry, from relaxers to weaves to the doc's stability device: a ridiculous hair expo stage event in Atlanta that puts pageantry and pomp over pure skill. A better reference than Moore may be Chris Bell's 2008 steroid culture documentary Bigger Stronger Faster*, where the issues of vanity are also relevant beyond its specific subjects. While Stilson's film doesn't have (or need) the same personal punch, the light-hearted yet serious tone and editing style will seem familiar. Chris Rock as the catalyst for discovery makes for a very entertaining and amusing watch. Rock's quips and reactions serve as a gateway for pasty white Canadians like me who without a guide may have no idea what the fuck they're watching, and could not fathom why people would subject themselves to the activities involved in achieving "good hair". There is first an examination of "relaxers", which turns nappy hair into straight, silky, luxurious locks. It is shocking to watch how the chemicals in these products can damage and burn, aptly demonstrated by the visual of an aluminum can being stripped by a relaxer chemical to the point where it is completely clear. A longer segment about weaves takes Rock to India, investigating the process in which young Indian girls shave their heads ritualistically and send their mops back overseas to retail for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. These segments also explore and explain how spending so much on ones coiffure can lead to distance in a relationship - the ladies aren't going to let their fellas mess up their thousand dollar 'do. It also obviously causes major fears of rain and swimming. An examination of the industry behind both shows how much money black people, especially women, are shelling out to businesses that are ironically mostly not black owned. In total, these scenes raise questions of whether or not they should or even want to be more involved in serving their own community through such methods. While one might look down on some of these people for shelling out large percentages of their paycheck every month on goop and sorta-wigs, watching the sole white hairdresser of the extravagant hair show go in for Botox treatment certainly makes it clear that vanity knows no boundaries of race or ridiculousness, and that in the end a lot of this may be uniquely psychological rather than strictly cultural. This especially becomes clear through the numerous talking head bits that pepper throughout the film from noted entertainers and figures from Ice-T to Maya Angelou, who talk of their first and/or continuing tales of weaves and relaxers. Al Sharpton for example tells about James Brown getting him to relax his hair to be more politically affable, and the payoff photograph is amusing and makes his point. A group of young girls talk about relaxing their hair not just for their own vanity, but because of the perceptions they would receive in their office had they grown their hair out naturally. You can't help but feel bad for the one girl of the group with a cute short afro as she listens to her friends explain yet another body issue she will have to contend with. It is unfortunate that Rock and Stilson aren't able to push more of their celebrity friends to get on the couch and similarly open up. Most of the talking head stories simply revolve around how, and not so much WHY they do this to their heads. When Rock wants to talk about any media manipulation leading these people to believe they don't have good hair, it doesn't resonate as well as it could. The case is clearly made that a number of these things are controversial if not clearly fucked up, but for the few fingers Rock points outside the black community, he extends others pointing back within. I'm not sure if there was an activist element intended when they first set out on this venture, but on the psychological level there was much left to be explored. Despite near universal critical acclaim, on IMDB and Flixster I've seen a lot more pushback against the film. I've seen some complaints from people mad at Rock taking pokes at weaves and relaxers at all, and others who believe Rock didn't take enough of a stand. I see claims that Stilson and Rock needed to spend time with black women who DO have naturally straight hair, and should show numerous people with "bad hair" of other races. I believe those complaints are misguided and could have turned the whole thing into an unfocused mess, instead of what it is - a very funny picture that is insightful, interesting and endlessly entertaining, but missing a definitive answer to its main question. -- Goon

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American Gladiators Movie Gets a Writer

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:32:47 +0000

Peter Iliff (Point Break, Varsity Blues) to re-envision the Gladiators as superheroes.

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Mike White Takes on Santa Wars

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:32:27 +0000

School of Rock writer to pen true story comedy based on an episode of This American Life.

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New To Theatres This Weekend: Twilight: New Moon, The Blind Side, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Sean — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:31:04 +0000

Twilight mania takes theatres by storm once again this weekend as the second installment of the vampire love story has finally arrived. If you decide to fight your way through crowds of teenage girls, you could also check out the animated flick Planet 51 or sappy sports drama The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock. In select theatres we have Werner Herzog's wacky cop flick Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces and John Woo's epic Red Cliff, plus Swedish drama Mammoth starring Michelle Williams, from the director of Fucking Amal. Will you be taking part in the Twilight madness? If not, do you plan to see anything else this weekend?

Twilight: New Moon
Planet 51
The Blind Side
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (limited)
Broken Embraces (limited)
Red Cliff (limited)
Fix (limited)
Kurbaan (limited)
Mammoth (limited)
The Missing Person (limited)

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Jackass 3 Confirmed for 2010… in 3-D!

Sean — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:14:12 +0000

My mind is reeling thinking of all the disgusting pranks that the world needs to see in three-dimensions.

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Brad Pitt Producing Dark Void Video Game Adaptation

Sean — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:12:29 +0000

The game's not even out yet and it's already been optioned. Probably because it has jet packs!

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Anvil! The Story of Anvil Among Academy Award Documentary Snubs

Sean — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:12:11 +0000

Although documentaries have gained a fair bit of mainstream acceptance over the past decade, the average moviegoer is still highly unlikely to know or care about most of the films that are being released in the realm of non-fiction. And considering the kinds of docs typically recognized by the Academy Awards, it's easy to see why people might be turned off from the genre. Year after year, they seem to place higher value on "important" subjects, rather than deft storytelling and artistic merit. Once again this year, the short list of movies nominated for Best Documentary Feature seem to be lacking in not only imagination but also accessibility. Which is not to say that there aren't some great movies on this list, but to be honest, I've only seen 1 out of the 15 titles -- and that's coming from someone who actually cares about docs. So it's only natural for people to point out all kinds of glaring omissions from the movies that actually got any sort of theatrical release this year... some deserving, and others not so much. Anvil: The Story of Anvil is one of the major flicks missing here, and although I can't say I ever expected to see it get nominated, let's not forget, we're not even talking nominations here... this is just the short list! On the other hand, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story is one of his weakest films to date, and its omission is totally fine by me. Still, there are all kinds of other critically acclaimed films that were shunned including: We Live in Public, The September Issue, Tyson, Good Hair, Not Quite Hollywood, Crude, and No Impact Man. What do you think, did any of these movies get robbed? Check out the 15 potential finalists for Best Documentary Feature after the jump.

The Beaches of Agnes (Dir. Agnès Varda)
Burma VJ (Dir. Anders Østergaard)
The Cove (Dir. Louie Psihoyos)
Every Little Step (Dir. James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo)
Facing Ali (Dir. Pete McCormack)
Food, Inc. (Dir. Robert Kenner)
Garbage Dreams (Dir. Mai Iskander)
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders (Dir. Mark N. Hopkins)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Dir. Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Mugabe and the White African (Dir. Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey)
Sergio (Dir. Greg Barker)
Soundtrack for a Revolution (Dir. Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman)
Under Our Skin (Dir. Andy Abrahams Wilson)
Valentino The Last Emperor (Dir. Matt Tyrnauer)
Which Way Home (Dir. Rebecca Cammisa)

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