I hate to start my review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a pretty cool movie, on a really down note, but I have to ask: what was the point of this movie?
One answer might be that it’s supposed to just be a fun action story. Another might be that it’s necessary set-up for the bigger events unfolding in later films. Either way, the film doesn’t quite get there, instead being too big to be pure fun, and too pointless to be epic. (more…)
Welcome back to the not-entirely-irregular feature that I’m calling “Unexpected Pleasures.” It’s about trying things that I might otherwise dismiss to discover the joys hidden inside. Send suggestions to staff@enchantmentunderthesea.org.
The Footloose remake that just came out last week opens in the only way it ever could: a pretty slavish, but clean and stylish, recreation of the titles of the original, which was a series of close-ups of dancing feet. This opening certainly prepares us for what is to come, as it’s not the only slavish recreation we’re going to see (those of you that were into the original will see familiar angry-warehouse-dancing, confetti-storms, and even a rusty yellow VW Bug).
But then, maybe if this remake was a little MORE slavishly dedicated to shot-for-shot re-creation, it’s pleasures might be easier to discover. (more…)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the tale of an ape, given the gift of hyper-intelligence, at the tipping point between evolving and maintaining his animal nature, caught between something bold and new and something simple. It’s oddly apt that the film itself also teeters between bold and simple. It’s got the simple appeal of a nostalgia-fueled action film, but it’s also reaching for something more complex and lasting. Let’s see where it comes out…
Remember that classic scene in E.T. where the government agents violently interrogate and then kill Elliot’s school teacher? Or remember that scene in The Goonies where Chunk’s dad and Mikey’s dad expose their history of mutual hatred? How about that scene in Close Encounters where the aliens eat human flesh?
Yeah. Neither do I. But apparently J.J. Abrams does. (more…)
I guess the first question people usually ask when discussing a film is, “what is it about?” Well I’m here to tell you that Meek’s Cutoff, the new film directed by Kelly Reichardt, is not really about anything. Or at least, not anything interesting. But I’m also here to tell you that, in this case, that might not matter. (more…)
The most obvious thematic thread in Joe Wright’s new film Hanna is that of Hanna’s discovery of the world. Early on, Hanna’s father reads her an encyclopedia entry about music, and we realize she’s never actually heard music before. But she wants to. She wants to discover the secrets of a world she has never known. She wants to feel music.
Turns out that maybe the best way to demonstrate that tumultuous beauty and propulsive joy of music to Hanna would be to show her this film.
It’d be easy after hearing the premise of Exit Through the Gift Shop to dump it into the same category as Dogtown and Z-Boys or Train on the Brain: it’s essentially a documentary that purports to dive into a subculture (namely, the world of street art) and reveal it to the world. But the reality is, this film is not just about fringe artists and punks: it’s about the nature of art and culture itself, and the dangers of post-modern emptiness in a world that can monetize pessimism. (more…)
A still from “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”
Anyone who’s been in a thrift store within the past two years know there’s a mass exodus of personal VHS tape collections afoot. I’ve been delighted to find a VHS copy of “Goodfellas” in fairly recent times after trying in vain to check it out from the library, for instance. When it costs anywhere from $2 to $5 to rent something from Blockbuster (depending on what their pricing strategy happens to be that day), and when you’re too lazy to sign up for Netflix, landing an actually good movie for a quarter can be pretty rewarding. It’s a modern day renaissance of obsolescence.
So I like to comb through secondhand VHS collections looking for treasure. So do these guys, albeit they’re coming at it from a slightly different direction.
It’s hard to sell the pleasures of watching one of the worst movies of all time with an audience of unruly hecklers. It actually kind of sounds like a circle of movie-critic-hell. But with the right movie and the right audience, it’s actually a pretty great way to spend a saturday night.
Just last month, the movie was absolutely right, but the audience left a little to be desired. Here’s how an audience plagued by the mindset of nerd culture almost ruined my very first screening of the cult masterpiece-of-shit, The Room. (more…)
The image above has been making the rounds recently, and at first glance, it looks like it could just be the creative mutterings of a bored comedy writer. Jackass 3D as a serious Oscar contender… seems like a kind of easy, ironic joke, above even The Onion’s standard for humor. It’s funny because it’s impossible: in what world would a 3D movie about hurting yourself and pranking others be (FAVORABLY!) compared to the surrealist works of Luis Bunuel?
The answer is this world. And the reasons why kind of beg some questions about why people do film (and art) criticism in the first place. (more…)
Well, here it is! It’s the first episode of the Enchantment Under the Sea podcast, “Hold On To Your Butts.” We’re trying this whole thing out, and this was actually only a test episode, so things will probably change dramatically between this episode and our next one. Stay tuned! And, feel free to email us with any feedback. (CAUTION: there are some swears in this.)
(NOTE: You can subscribe to our podcast using this feed, but we’ll hopefully have an iTunes page for the podcast soon or SUBSCRIBE THROUGH ITUNES!)
Relevant links (most of which are sweary and, as a result, NSFW):
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By way of setting the scene, I should probably mention the turkey burgers. I was out to dinner at a local place called Barleys with my friends Al and Colleen. When we ordered dinner, by some miracle of taste convergence (or maybe just social psychology), we each independently decided to order the turkey burger. The three of us did share a lot of common tastes, so, as often happens when we get together, each of us was talking about the music we’d been listening to recently. I predictably started blathering about the new Superchunk record,1 which I had become obsessed with in the preceding weeks. But during that conversation, Al said something that turned out to be as important as it was surprising. He told me he’d been listening to the new Kesha album. (more…)
I hate to start my review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a pretty cool movie, on a really down note, but I have to ask: what was the point of this movie?
One answer might be that it’s supposed to just be a fun action story. Another might be that it’s necessary set-up for the bigger events unfolding in later films. Either way, the film doesn’t quite get there, instead being too big to be pure fun, and too pointless to be epic. (more…)
I’ve always been a fan of traditional Indian music. I used to search Limewire for long live recordings of ragas and tabla solos. The best recordings combined severe technical proficiency with a fun, improvisational feeling. The rhythms and melodies were complex, but there was something very satisfying and whole about the compositions, no matter how fractured they could appear if you thought too much about what time signature they were using.
Recently, that interest led me to a new style of music. I’ve been exploring the golden age of Bollywood cinema, the music produced for Indian popular cinema in the 50s and 60s. (more…)
