The House of Caine Guest Post: Blood and Wine
The awesome guest posting for The House of Caine continues with the man of mystery behind Isaacs Picture Conclusions, possibly called Isaac, possibly Eric, more likely it’s Chris Isaak, giving you the lowdown on Blood and Wine. Whatever you do, check out his site… after reading this review.
I remember watching Blood and Wine (1996) when it came out on cable – I had just graduated from college and was still living in my mum’s house getting ready to move in to a rental with my buddies. I had just gone through about ten years of not really watching movies – I spent most of that decade chasing chicks around – and the only reason I really watched this was because Jennifer Lopez was “new” and I hoped she was going to strip naked and slink around all over the place (it doesn’t happen, boys). I knew who Jack Nicholson was, sure, but this really had no other draw for me other than J Lo.
Looking at this the other week, for this project, as this started and that zen-ish 90s synthesizer fired up as Stephen Dorff paddled out into the ocean on a surfboard I thought, “oh man, what have I got myself into?” Then he and Harold Perrineau haul a freaking shark out of the ocean and I was prepared for something terrible. In the next scene Judy Davis (remember her) rolls off a couch in a hungover stupor and Dorff sasses his step-dad (Nicholson) and things still weren’t looking very good.
Shortly after that we are introduced to J Lo’s Mexican-Nanny-To-Rich-Assholes and her “Choo think I look like a nanny?” accent blah, blah, blah. And – in all honesty I have never been that interested in Michael Caine (I have no idea why) but about 15 minutes in we meet his character and things really changed for this movie. Shame on me, I suppose, but I really only know him as Alfred in The Dark Knight trilogy but he is EXCELLENT in this, doing his character act bit, as a chain smoking, coughing up blood safe cracker who’s not afraid to beat the crap out of anyone if he’s not getting his way.
I’m no professional but in my opinion when we talk about Film Noir, from what I’ve seen, they usually revolve around a hopeless sap who’s being manipulated by a woman into doing something nefarious and things get worse and worse and worse up until the end. This is similar to that style (even billed as Noir on the Netflix envelope) as things continue to get more hopeless, but there’s not really that particular feel of darkness to this. Caine and Nicholson character act all over the place, J Lo “Choos” her way around the joint and Stephen Dorff acts like a dude from the 90s (if that makes sense) as we watch an expensive diamond necklace robbery fencing go wrong.
This movie is very good, but it’s also kind of dated with it’s fashion and music and Jack Nicholson and his infamous Ray Bans (and Caine sports one of those veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery thin moustaches) but if you look past that type of thing, this is a pretty, pretty good little thriller.
Verdict: Stubby of Reschs
Thanks so much to Mr Pictures Conclusions for taking part. Please head on over to Isaacs Picture Conclusions and get involved with some of the fantastic stuff he has going on over there.
The House of Caine: The Dark Knight
When The Dark Knight (2008) opened, it was an unstoppable behemoth, demolishing box office records whilst simultaneously garnering critical praise rarely seen for any film, let alone a comic book based major studio release. As time has passed, it has been slightly fashionable to put the film down, even if only a little. To say that the hype over Heath Ledger’s passing and posthumous Oscar skewed perception of the film.
I think that is a little unfair. Sure you can quibble with some aspects of the film, pick tiny plot holes or discuss the occasional pacing issues. But this is an incredible piece of mainstream filmmaking, that from the excellent opening set piece bank robbery never really lets you go. And yes, Heath Ledger as the Joker delivers one of the best performances that I have ever seen on screen. I don’t know that it is possible to exaggerate just how good he is in the film. Plot wise, the film is focused on Christian Bale’s Batman going up against the Joker, whilst dealing with both his place in the city of Gotham and in particular his relationship with his beloved Rachael (Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes in this second film) who is now dating the dreamy new District Attorney Harvey Dent. Obviously that is a rather simplistic rendering of the story, but the film is predominately driven by all the incredible work that surrounds this basic plot.
Plenty of analysis of the film focuses on Ledger’s performance, which is understandable because it would be criminal not to highlight it in any examination of the film. But there is plenty more that makes this film so good. There are some great subtleties to the script, including some lighter moments. Comic book films tend to either be totally dark or totally light and fluffy. The Dark Knight definitely leans to the former, but is never too onerous and the occasional lightening of proceedings definitely helps in that regard. In terms of the shooting, Nolan is fantastic at getting the relatively epic scale just right. You can definitely feel that it was shot for the IMAX format and even just on blu-ray on my average sized TV, the cityscapes that paint out Gotham look amazing. There is a real sense as the film progresses that it is close to a perfect merging of craft and art. A couple of times throughout I found myself tearing up watching this film, at points where I had not in other viewings, such was the power of what was on screen.
Out of the three Nolan Batman films, this is the one in which Michael Caine’s Alfred plays the most integral role. For a minor supporting role, this character is really well fleshed out. Alfred is simultaneously Bruce Wayne’s best (and only) friend, as well as his confidante. They have a wonderfully light patter between them but Alfred is also the one looking out for him, the mother waiting up worried sick when he has been out all night. Quite importantly too, Alfred is the only person who is willing to remind Batman (well at least Bruce) that he has limits. In fact Alfred is probably the most well written character in the film, perfectly combining narrative function with great dialogue. Now back to Ledger. His Joker is an incredibly evil creation, ‘a man who just wants to watch the world burn’. Indeed I cannot think of a truly mainstream film with a more evil character at its core. The performance is staggeringly good. Ledger will make you stare at the screen, jaw dropped in astonishment. He will make you feel chilled to the core. And yes, there is no denying that watching the performance will make you lament that Ledger is no longer with us but also rejoice that he was able to reach these heights before he died. Ledger leads a pretty amazing ensemble cast, the equal of any film of the last 20 years – Bale, Ledger, Caine, Eckhart and Oldman, all at the top of their game, really rams the film home. Only Maggie Gyllenhaal is a slight letdown for me. I can’t help feeling that Katie Holmes did a slightly better job with the same role in the first film.
I have no doubt that the iconic status that The Dark Knight has gained is going nowhere. This is one of those films that will still be viewed and admired in 50 years time. Either as a stand along work or for the changes it brought about to mainstream filmmaking. On any list I make of the greatest mainstream films of all time, this film belongs near to the top.
Verdict: Longneck of Melbourne Bitter
Progress: 86/1001
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
Don’t forget there is a competition all this week on the blog, details here. Also, I will be live tweeting the sequel to this film The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to check that out if you can.
The House of Caine Guest Post: Batman Begins
In the first look at a Michael Caine for the week, Jon Fisher from The Film Brief blog and podcast takes a look at Batman Begins.
It speaks to the deceptively rapid passage of time that it has been nearly a decade since Batman Begins (2005) was released. In the time since this movie, superhero movies have returned in a big way, a way that likely wouldn’t have happened unless this movie or something like it had come along to reinvigorate interest in comic books films as super-profitable ventures. Iron Man (2008), Thor (2011), Captain America (2011), and the other Marvel Avengers all owe Batman Begins, at least in part, for their existence so it’s worthwhile to look back at Nolan’s breakthrough piece and consider what, if anything, it did for the aesthetics of the superhero movie.
First of all, it should be pointed out that superhero stories shouldn’t be discounted as lesser films simply because of the source material. The late Roger Ebert once wrote that a movie isn’t about what it’s about – it’s about how it’s about it. With regards to superhero movies, the poor track record prior to 2005 wasn’t due to the innately vapid source material. Rather, it spoke to the puerile way that most film-makers treated the material handed to them – mining morally complex and visually exciting material for the sake of lowest-common denominator, throw-away bile, before defending it by intimating “They’re only comic books…”
Thus, Nolan deserves some credit for treating the material seriously in the first place. His Batman Begins is an origin story – (briefly) chronicling Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) troubled childhood, his encounter with the League of Shadows, and the trial-and-error process that resulted in him esablishing the structure we identify as the Batman universe. This includes Alfred the Butler (played the ever-so-consummate thespian Michael Caine), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), and some lesser known characters from the comic book series (the Scarecrow, for instance, played by Cillian Murphy). All of this is presented with choppy, non-linear narrative – a Chrisopher Nolan signature ever since his intriguing first short film Following (1998) and the outstanding Memento (2000).
The film, overall, is a good and entertaining one, although far from a perfect one. Nolan certainly nails the film’s tone – dark, introspective and murky. He uses fine cinematography, suitably morose performances and a Hans Zimmer score that has become synonymous with the Caped Crusader to achieve this tone. The film’s shortcomings mainly lie in simple storytelling errors – which have plagued the subsequent sequels, The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). These are mainly minor, but are certainly irritating for rationalist film buffs. One example – during a scene in which the League of Shadows demands that Wayne murder a simple thief to complete his ‘graduation’ from their training, Wayne refuses on moral grounds. He explains in the screenplay’s classically succinct and modestly poetic style: “When I go back to Gotham, I will fight men like this, but I will not become an executioner.”
Wayne goes on to flick a flame stick onto a platform above him stacked with gunpowder (you can imagine Ra’s Al Ghul invoking Homer Simpson and stating “I… keep some gunpowder there), which ignites the entire fragile structure of the building, and after a brief fist-fight, Wayne manages to escape, choosing to save Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), the man who trained him but just revealed himself to be a morally simplistic, basically nasty and untrustworthy person. Wayne apparently doesn’t mind that he clearly just sealed the fate of the man he initially refused to execute.
Moments like this pop up from time to time throughout the trilogy (there’s a doozy in The Dark Knight when Harvey Dent shoots a driver in the head in order to force the car to crash and kill its passenger – no visual explanation of how Dent escaped the car before it crashed). Usually they are minor irritations, but they prevent the Nolan films from being the super-perfect saga most people so desperately wish them to be. And it’s best not to get started on the way the trilogy (and the Batman mythology generally) uses the cover-all excuse of “he’s a billionaire” to explain away any number of truly unbelievable technological set-ups. This is acceptable as an ‘all in good fun’ approach to a point – but when investing 11 or so hours of one’s life to a trilogy that insists we take it seriously, audiences deserve a little more of a cerebral approach from the film-makers.
I still prefer to focus mainly on the things that Christopher Nolan does right in his Batman films. He re-crafted Bruce Wayne as a morally complex man, truly tortured by his past, unable to express himself emotionally to those closest to him. He transformed Batman from a caricature (i.e. the Joel Schumacher produced and directed films of the 1990s) into a character. Along the way Nolan also created the most iconic (and, as it turned out, tragic) villain of modern times in Batman Begins’ sequel… But that’s a review for another day.
Verdict: Pint of Kilkenny
Jonathan Fisher is the creator and writer of (the kinda defunct but hopefully coming back) The Film Brief website and podcast. Be sure to check out his site as well as like his page on facebook here and follow along on twitter @thefilmbrief.
The House of Caine: Intro and Competition Details
First of all, apologies for the terrible pun. But if you have followed this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably seen a few of them. This whole week on the blog will be dedicated to one of the most iconic and just all-round awesome actors alive today, the great Michael Caine.
The whole spectrum is going to be covered here – his earlier starring efforts, later supporting work and even a little of his voice work in animation. Also I will be live tweeting Dark Knight Rises on Tuesday arvo/evening my time, so keep an eye out for that. Luckily for you guys too, I also have three really awesome guest bloggers who will be bringing their thoughts about a few of Caine’s cinematic outings.
If you would ever like to have a guest blog on the site, I would love to have you. Fire me an email to drinkingbeerwatchingmovie@gmail.com if you are keen. I run these theme weeks every month or two and it is great to get as many different voices as possible.
This week there is also a competition running to coincide with House of Caine. Up for grabs is a brand spanking new copy of Len Deighton’s novel The Ipcress File which would be adapted to the screen in 1965 starring Caine himself. You know the drill on how to enter, but just in case, the details are (double entries for the post on The Ipcress File):
- Like’ the post on Facebook for one entry.
- Comment on the post on Facebook for two entries.
- Share the post on Facebook for two entries.
- Retweet the post on Twitter for two entries.
- Like the post on this site for one entry.
- Comment on the post on this site for two entries.
To get things started, share your favourite Caine films or performances in the comments section below.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
Trailer for your Weekend: Gravity
I think this teaser for Alfonso Cuaron’s upcoming sci-fi flick Gravity has been doing the rounds for a while. But I only just caught it and it has absolutely blown me away. The trailer itself does a great job of giving a sense of the plot with very few specifics to spoil the end experience. This high concept flick featuring two astronauts drifting in space sounds pretty incredible to start with. Add in the fact that the two astronauts are played by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock who I have been liking more and more and I think we have a pretty exciting combination.
Are you guys as psyched for this as I am?
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
Jaws 2
Jaws 3 (1983), was deadlocked with Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) in the poll I held for a live tweet a few weeks ago. Losing out on the honour via a coin toss, I thought I would go back and revisit that film’s predecessor Jaws 2 (1978).
Jaws (1975) is I think my favourite Spielberg film, which is saying something because I think many of his films (though by no means all of them) are modern masterpieces. Before viewing this first of the sequels, I had not heard too much about it which led me to presume it was a rubbish film. However whilst it is quite a different beast to the first film, it is in its own right, pretty bloody fantastic if you ask me.
Where Spielberg’s original was creature feature made into ‘A movie’ thriller brilliance, Jaws 2 unashamedly embraces its status as a B movie. As such, it does not take long for the murderous shark’s spree to start. Actually it is only three minutes into the film before we see the killer at work. The film is also not afraid to be delightfully gimmicky. There is some gratuitous use of the fin and a shark chasing down water-skiers which is all B movie stuff at its best. The film also works on at least one level, because sharks are really fucking scary, and as such there is no shortage of the beast in action. As a result, the shark does not have the same ‘psychology’ if you will as the first film does. The killings are more random and arbitrary in this one. Whilst generally the film is done with a light touch, there are plenty of both intense and graphic moments. Like the best thrillers, the filmmakers here have excelled at building ‘moments’, where you know something big is about to happen, but you are still shocked when it does.
Whilst it perhaps lacks some of the Spielbergian sheen of the first film, Jaws 2 still looks great, the underwater photography being especially noteworthy. One thing that it does have in common with the first film though is John Williams weaving his usual magic with the score and he is masterfully pulling the strings of the audience with his work here. And of course, the music to herald the arrival of the shark ready to feed is once again masterfully done. The script is pretty solid, full of teen summer lovin and the like; and happily Roy Schneider returns in a pretty major role. Without overdoing it, the film also reflects and invokes plot points from the first film, the dodgy and greedy mayor for example. Overall you cannot really fault the technical aspects of the film. In that way it is reminiscent of the classic Universal Monsters films that I have been watching recently. They all show that a concept that seems utterly silly and possibly even daft on paper can be elevated by it being really well made.
Jaws 2 is a sharply made and shot B movie which is vast amounts of fun. Yeah it’s not as good as the original, but it is not even really trying. If you are into creature features done really well and effectively, without taking themselves too seriously, then this is well worth checking out.
Verdict: Pint of Kilkenny
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Night of the Living Dead
Over the weekend, I turned my hand to live tweeting a film from the 1001. After a poll, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) was the film to get the live tweet treatment. This is how it turned out.
As I mentioned during the review, the film is in the Public Domain, so you can check it out right here:
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Trailer for your Weekend: The Lego Movie
I think I heard mutterings about a looming Lego based film a while ago. I dismissed them as sounding like a recipe for the worst adaptation in history. Sort of like how Battleship turned out.
But the first trailer is utterly inspired. Check it out below. Maintaining the tone over a feature length film and getting the humour down whilst also obviously keeping it suitable for children will definitely be a challenge. All of a sudden though, as absurd as it sounds, this is one of my most anticipated films of next year. Here’s hoping it is not rubbish.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
I will be live tweeting a film this weekend, so please head here to have your say on what film it should be.
Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger
Chucking on the Australian film Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger (2008), I was expecting a pretty light film aimed at teens because it was based on a popular series of young adult novels. Or so I thought. I clearly had the film totally mixed up with something else. Because whilst the film is aimed at (older) teens, it is not particularly light, at least not large parts of it. It is a really excellent film that more people should see though.
The film has a creative and brilliant opening that definitely gets you excited for what is to come. It immediately conveys the utter isolation that being a teenager can bring as the entire school does cartwheels, whilst Esther looks on, totally outside of the group. Small groupings or cliques of teens are a recurring image throughout the film. The film sees Esther, sick of being an outsider at her private school, just piss off and start going to another school. In this case a public school where she is befriended by the much more world wise Sunni, played by Keisha Castle-Hughes who came to prominence for her Oscar Award nominated turn in Whale Rider (2002). The film then chronicles this odd couple as they traverse life inside and outside of school. The film nails much of the maddening pretension that plagues many private schools and just the crippling conformity that is inherent in basically all modern schooling. Thematically it explores some really important issues for teens, but achieves this by making the film feel very real. This is no straight, whitewashed story. Bad things happen here and even the titular character does some highly fuckin questionable things. But everything onscreen is geared really well to the thematic and narrative purpose of the film.
So many films aimed at this market are shot in such a bland manner that the vim in how Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger is brought to life is all kinds of refreshing. There are some great stylistic flourishes from director Cathy Randall, using creative camera angles and some really overt choreography of the characters on screen. The script is wickedly funny but the film is certainly a bit darker than I was expecting. The balance is just about right overall (though a late plot point is misjudged in its bleakness). The characters are also great, each of them feeling different and real. The character of Esther in particular is a great one, a teenager with real sass who is also willing to make mistakes and learn about the world through them. Much of the credit for this must go to the really charming performance of Danielle Catanzariti as Esther. Catanzariti has not been sighted since, but hopefully we can see her onscreen again soon because she is an excellent performer, especially in terms of her comic timing which is incredibly sharp. She is definitely helped along by the aforementioned Castle-Hughes as well as a supporting cast featuring a bunch of really highly regarded Australian performers, including Toni Collette and Essie Davis.
This film was such a pleasant surprise. It was not particularly well received out here. I’m not sure if like me, people were expecting something a little lighter. But this is a firecracker of a film, really original and well worth your time if you can track a copy down.
Verdict: Pint of Kilkenny
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
I will be live tweeting a film this weekend, so please head here to have your say on what film it should be.
Ghost Busters
For some reason Ghost Busters (1984) was never a real formative film for me, despite some of my absolute favourites coming from that era. I am sure I had seen the film on TV years ago, but I only had pretty vague recollections of it, making this viewing almost like seeing it for the first time.
It’s weird that whilst the 80s was a pretty dire time for some other art forms (I’m looking at you music), it was a great time for film, especially popular film. Ghost Busters is a definite part of that. This New York set film sees three academic scientists who are kicked off campus go into the ghost hunting business. Lucky for them, that is a field of work that happens to be in high demand at the time. Much of the humour in the early parts of the film comes from the sheer lack of experience or knowledge that our heroes have about what the hell they should do when they happen upon a ghost. This makes their early experiments in ‘ghostbusting’ hilariously fraught. But luckily for the folk of New York, they are also generally successful in these endeavours. Especially as the supernatural goings-on really ramp up, culminating in a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Godzilla sized beast rampaging through the streets. As will happen. The supernatural happenings are driven by what I assume were some pretty impressive for the time special effects that by and large have aged relatively well. There are some definite exceptions to this rule, but the effects are there to only enhance the other aspects of the film, they are not the focus of the film itself. A lesson there for many a filmmaker I think.
The two major strengths of the film are the sharp comedy of the script and the fantastic cast. Two of the stars of the film, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis were also on writing duties. What they turned in was a wryly comedic gem that will have you chuckling throughout, without feeling like you are being beaten over the head with an endless bombardment of jokes. Another major credit to the script is that it actually gets stronger as the film goes on, with many of the funnier lines coming toward the end of the film. If you really wanted to quibble, there is a plot diversion and character or two that are underdeveloped, but in reality it is highly doubtful you will notice. Plus, as with any high quality film of this ilk, there are a bunch of really quotable lines peppered throughout. Most of them are delivered by Bill Murray, such as the classics “he slimed me” and “cats and dogs living together”. Murray is definitely the star in terms of screen time and his performance is really good too. He is able to comfortably nail both wry, dry humour as well as the odd bit of silliness. He is really well supported by basically everyone else as in the film, with my personal favourites here being Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver. Moranis especially creates a really full and fun character in his short time onscreen. Man I love that guy, watching this film brought back plenty of memories of a film that definitely was a formative one for me, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).
In the end, Ghost Busters is just about as fun as a film can hope to be, managing to mix elements of comedy, horror and fantasy all together to come up with something highly original. I can definitely see why this is an absolute favourite of many and a really formative film for a lot of huge film fans.
Verdict: Pint of Kilkenny
Progress: 84/1001
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
I will be live tweeting a film this weekend, so please head here to have your say on what film it should be.
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