B

Grey Gardens

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 1976)

Seminal semisweet documentary about “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, the eccentric and probably mentally ill aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis living on a ramshackle estate in East Hampton, New York. Grey Gardens makes anyone who has ever appeared on Hoarders look like an amateur poseur. Just like any other train wreck, it’s impossible to look away even if it’s hard to watch at points. Yet, neither Edie seems miserable, wanting, or joyless. I guess whether you call it a happy or a sad film depends on perspective– something Albert and David Maysles no doubt intended.

In 2010, the United States Library of Congress deemed Grey Gardens “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry (https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/).

(Music Box) B

http://greygardensonline.com/the-documentary/

What We Do in the Shadows

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA/New Zealand 2014)

Ever wonder what This Is Spinal Tap might look like mixed with Big Brother and, oh, say True Blood? Me, either, but the result, evidenced by this little gem, is pretty damned funny.

A group of vampires of varying ages– Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), and Peytr (Ben Fransham)– share a house in a New Zealand city. They have the typical housemate drama: one mate fails to clean up the blood from victims and another gets his roomies into tiffs with rival werewolves. The usual stuff. The storyline here involves the cute but annoying Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), a newbie in need of adapting to the ropes of vampire life, and his best bud, Stu (Stuart Rutherford), on whom the housemates develop a little man crush. Wicked fun!

(Music Box) B

http://whatwedointheshadows.com

 

Cool Hand Luke

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 1967)

Who cuts the heads off parking meters in a drunken haze? Who sidesteps prison kingpin Dragline (George Kennedy) and bluffs his way through poker? Who paves a road in one day, and comes out of solitary confinement whistling? Who eats 50 hard boiled eggs, but manages to inspire his cellmates to eat rice for him? Fucking Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman), that’s who. This classic prison drama is based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Donn Pearce.

The last time I saw Cool Hand Luke, I was in high school. I don’t remember it moving so slowly. Despite its many charms, a great story certainly not being the least of them, I got bored. What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. “Plastic Jesus,” however, is awesome.

In 2005, the United States Library of Congress deemed Cool Hand Luke “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry (https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/).

(Home via iTunes) B

Red Army

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2014)

Never dull or sentimental, this engrossing documentary about the Soviet national ice hockey team focuses on four stars– Viacheslav Fetisov, Anatoli Karpov, Alexei Kasatonov, and Felix Nechepore– who played together from the 70s until the late 80s. The interviews are great, and the former players are fun to listen to as they tell their stories. Paralleling the rigorous approach to the game (it should be “played like chess” and choreographed “like the Bolshoy”) with Communism and maybe human nature in general, Red Army shows, intentionally or not, why Communism ultimately failed. Fun fact: I learned after I saw this that director Gabe Polsky’s parents live one block up from me. Who knew?

(Music Box) B

http://sonyclassics.com/redarmy/

Finding Vivian Maier

Video posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2014)

I had never heard of Vivian Maier. A kooky lady, she was a spinster who bounced around Chicago’s North Shore working as a nanny. Maier was a pack rat and a closet street photographer who took tens of thousands of photos, mostly between the Fifties and Seventies– and apparently filed them away. She died broke and unknown in 2009. A trove of photos and rolls of undeveloped film she shot and left behind was accidentally (or serendipitously) discovered just before being discarded from a storage locker.

The film starts off with her work, which is actually pretty cool. You can see it here:

http://www.vivianmaier.com

Next, it explores the artist’s identity through the eyes of those who knew her, mainly her employers and the children she was charged to watch. An unusual and dark character emerges. Very interesting. Maier will forever remain a mystery, but her work speaks for itself.

(Home via iTunes) B

http://www.findingvivianmaier.com

Selma

Link posted on by moviebloke

(USA 2015)

Martin Luther King Jr. lived an amazing life, and it would take volumes to cover it. That’s why it was smart of director Ava DuVernay to focus on one key event—the freedom march on Selma—and not MLK’s entire life.

With Selma, DuVernay does a nice job downplaying the legacy and showing MLK as an imperfect man, flaws and fears and all. David Oyelowo lacks MLK’s intensity, but he pulls off the task of portraying the man. Seeing Oprah Winfrey play an unglamorous old lady is a surprise.

I have two issues here. One is technical: Selma looks and feels like a made-for-cable movie. The other issue is treatment: I would have liked the story to go a little deeper. Still, Selma is a film definitely worth its running time; in fact, it could have gone on and I probably would not have noticed.

With Carmen Ejogo, Giovanni Ribisi, Jim France, Clay Chappell, Tom Wilkinson, Haviland Stillwell, André Holland, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Colman Domingo, Omar J. Dorsey, Tessa Thompson, Common, Lorraine Toussaint, David Morizot, David Dwyer, E. Roger Mitchell, Dylan Baker, Ledisi Young, Kent Faulcon, Stormy Merriwether, Niecy Nash, Corey Reynolds, Wendell Pierce, John Lavelle, Stephan James, Trai Byers, Lakeith Stanfield, Henry G. Sanders, Charity Jordan, Stan Houston, Tim Roth, Nigel Thatch, Tara Ochs, David Silverman, Charles Saunders, Dexter Tillis, Cuba Gooding Jr.

128 minutes
Rated PG-13

(AMC 600 North Michigan) B

http://www.selmamovie.com