Cooley High [1975]
1. Preach barges into the bathroom and a girl starts beating him up with a toilet brush.
2. Mama comes home after a double shift and falls asleep sitting at the kitchen table.
3. Nonstop Motown on the soundtrack. Only when this movie came out, doing that wasn’t a cliche yet. It was a novelty. (And also a whole lot less expensive to license all that music than it would be today).
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World [2005]
1. “Oh my God, I am so stoned. Wow, look at that dirt. I’ve never seen dirt that’s so brown.”
2. Chalkboard scene. Hilarious example of improv gone bad.
3. Where’s the ending?
Uh oh. Drunk posting.
TOP 5 MOST PLAYED TRACKS IN iTunes:
1. Stoney Street: Amon Tobin
2. All Mine: Portishead
3. Ultra Privileged: Arto Lindsay
4. Get Confused: Fischerspooner
5. When I Wake: The Changes
(Weird. Atypical of me, and yet … )
For my Grandma Rosemary’s 80th birthday I wanted to get her something special. She loves, absolutely loves chocolate. So I just went online and bought her a box of chocolates from Ethel’s.
An Open Letter to the Chicago International Film Festival
I’m still not really pleased with how it came out (I’m feeling semi-inarticulate lately) but it’ll do.
The Phenix City Story [1955]
1. Best line: “My friends … I bring you news from hell.”
2. The lounge singer/stripper’s immaculately shaved armpits.
3. Local eatery: Elite Diner.
I need to write a CIFF wrap-up post now that the festival is over (it ends tonght). But I just don’t have the brain-strength or inspiration, or really that much to say aside from whiny grumbling. Did I enjoy the festival? Yes. Way more cool movies than I was able to see, and some good/great ones that I did see. Were there serious annoyances? Yes. Yes there were. But so what? Well, maybe I can keep it short.
Never Apologize [2007]
1. Malcom McDowell still has that wonderful voice and charisma. And is very funny.
2. When asked what he’d like on his tombstone, Lindsay Anderson took a long look all the way around the room and then replied, “Surrounded by Fucking Idiots.”
3. At Cannes Lindsay Anderson asked Princess Diana if she’d ever thought of being an actress. She smiled and said, “I am an actress.”
Babel [2006]
1. Cate Blanchett was giving me a kind of Judy Davis vibe. Like Davis, her American accent was impeccable.
2. Halfway through I felt like the deck was stacked too heavily against all the characters, but by the end of the movie I changed my mind.
3. The old woman giving Cate a pipe of kif to ease her pain; her face dissolving into bliss.
Home of the Giants [2007]
1. If you had told me that one day I’d like a high school basketball crime thriller starring Haley Joel Osment, I’d have asked you what meds you were on. But I did really like it.
2. The look on his face when the girl asks, “Are you two lovers?”
3. The fact that the local Wendy’s is the social center of the town is a wry little satirical touch.
