If there was ever a better argument for pot legalization than this scene from the creepy 1987 cult movie “River’s Edge,” I have yet to see it. This is probably the scariest … and funniest … variation of the “buying pot from the weird older guy” scenario that many of you may or may not have experienced in your wayward youth. By the way, that’s Keanu Reeves in the background.
Dave’s Strange World just had it’s 2,000th view today. Many thanks to everyone, from followers to lurkers, for the continued success of this blog.
To celebrate, esteemed British actor Oliver Reed has agreed to come back from the grave to do a solo performance of what dance purists call “Drunk on Aspel.”
The all-time Top 10 most popular posts on Dave’s Strange World:
10. “Copendium” written by Julian Cope
9. “Mother” – Natalie Maines (with Fred Norris) live on the Howard Stern Show 1-4-2013
8. “The Rebel Jesus” – Jackson Browne and the Chieftains
7. “Spirit of Truth aka One Man Show” (1997) – Vincent Stewart as Reverend X
5. “Russ Meyer’s Vixen” (1968) dir. Russ Meyer
4. “Saturday Night Live 1980″ – Nathan Rabin’s “How Bad Can it Be? Case File #23″
2. “Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson” by Kevin Avery
and still #1 with a bazooka …
One of the best films about teenagers ever made, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” was based on screenwriter Cameron Crowe’s real-life attempt to go back to high school undercover and write about what high school life was really like. The results are very funny, though they’re also sometimes extremely painful and awkward. Director Heckerling was especially sensitive in viewing how these kids were experiencing life. The characters are young, but they also face many things we tend to regard as adult issues (i.e. employment issues, unplanned pregnancies). I don’t know if things these days are better or worse for teenagers … especially given how nasty things have gotten with bullying, the internet, etc., but also with helicopter parenting being accepted as normal.
This scene between Sean Penn’s stoner character and Ray Walston’s teacher is a comedy classic. Walston’s character may be a “dick,” but he also deals with Penn’s character in a very calm, non-hysterical way … that’s also funny as hell. Seriously, what would YOU do, if you had Penn’s character as a student? I think it speaks volumes for Heckerling’s and Crowe’s instincts to have them at least come to a meeting of the minds at the end of the film. They’ll never be buddies, but you get the sense that there is a mutual respect there.
Arguably,”Bamboozled” is Spike Lee’s most underrated film. It didn’t get a lot of critical respect back in 2001, but this is a film that seriously needs another look.
“Bamboozled”‘s lead character is an African-American executive for a television network (played by Damon Wayans) who wants to get out of his contract, but can’t unless he’s fired. To get fired, he decides to come up with the most racist show he can imagine, a new-Millenial minstrel show, with black actors in black face, tap dancing, etc. Unfortunately for Wayans’ character, the network not only loves it, but the public does too. His show becomes the most popular show in the nation and Wayans ignores his ideals, embraces his new fame, and loses his soul.
Lee patterned “Bamboozled” on two stellar and abrasive media satires, Elia Kazan/Budd Schulberg’s 1956 film “A Face in the Crowd” and Sidney Lumet/Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 film “Network.” While you can definitely see the influence of both films on “Bamboozled,” “Bamboozled” throws race into the mix. The result is a very uncomfortable and disturbing look at what we, as Americans, have called “entertainment” for over a century … an entertainment that is based on the debasement of a race of people. “Bamboozled” isn’t perfect and it could have been shorter by about 20 minutes or so, but what’s there is still devastating, especially the montage at the end which is a compilation of some of the most horrific examples of racism in film history.
“Bamboozled” in many ways prefigured the Dave Chappelle controversy of 2005, when Chappelle left a $50 million contract with Viacom because he no longer felt comfortable with the material that he was doing on his very popular cable show for Comedy Central.
What’s also intriguing about “Bamboozled” is that it’s one of the few films that seriously analyzes the art of comedy. Being a comedy junkie, I relish any pop culture artifact that takes comedy seriously and examines, sometimes uncomfortably, what makes people laugh and why.
A very close second behind “Crimes and Misdemeanors” for my all-time favorite Woody Allen film, “Husbands and Wives” is Allen’s abrasively funny, embarrassing, dark, and extremely uncomfortable look at two troubled marriages. Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis are a couple trying to have an amicable divorce until … well … real life takes over. Once they start dating other people, the fur starts to fly. Witnessing this meltdown are their married friends played by Woody Allen and Mia Farrow who start to have their own issues once things unravel for Pollack and Davis.
This film is best remembered as the Allen film that was released around the time Allen and Farrow were going through their own ugly and public breakup. Unfortunately, the controversy over their breakup in real life overshadowed what a great film this is. Allen is at his best when he’s flinging acid at the audience and while it’s ultimately a comedy, I remember being very disturbed by the film when I saw it back in 1992, a feeling I couldn’t shake for days.
“Husbands and Wives” is, arguably, one of the most influential films of the last 20 years. It’s single camera, pseudo-documentary style (which audiences at the time claimed made their stomachs sick) can be seen in some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed TV shows of the last decade (“Modern Family,” “30 Rock,” “Arrested Development,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation”).
One of the best films of the past decade was Alexander Payne’s acidic and poignant comedy-drama “Sideways.” While much of it is funny (painfully and raunchily so), it’s also very sad. Having been lost in my own head and ill-conceived creative ambitions in my 20s, let’s just say this film is very much of a “There but for the grace of God go I …” kind of film.
Paul Giamatti does a brilliant job in the lead role of Miles, a failed author and wine snob who is spending his days teaching middle school English and going to too many wine “tastings.” Giamatti does a brilliant job making you like a character who is not particularly likable. I can’t describe how Giamatti is able to do it, but you do find yourself rooting for Miles, despite your better instincts. Why Giamatti’s performance was not even nominated for that year’s Oscars is one of many examples of why the Oscars have very little credibility for me.
However, the Oscars didn’t get it completely wrong that year. “Sideways” was nominated for Best PIcture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church) and Best Supporting Actress (Virginia Madsen) and won its sole Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film’s best scene is the one where Maya, played by Virginia Madsen, explains to the lead character Miles (played by Paul Giamatti) what she finds meaningful about wine, though she’s really talking about herself. This is one of the best films I’ve ever seen about love between people who are, well, of a certain age. A truly amazing speech from a very special and wonderful film.
While “Sideways” doesn’t have a traditional happy ending per se, it does give the long-suffering lead character a push towards happiness, and sometimes, that’s all you need.
There are some movies that are so terrible, they’re funny. There are other movies which are intentionally campy, but not so funny, because they’re too knowing of their own stupidity. And then there’s some movies that fit between both camps. They are movies that are over-the-top, so off-the-charts weird that you’re never quite sure if the filmmakers were in on the joke or not.
The two best examples of this are: the Russ Meyer-directed/Roger Ebert-scripted “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” … and “Road House”.
“Road House” is the most ridiculous, hysterically funny, and arguably, one of the greatest action films of all time. It’s a film that never ceases to entertain and amaze. And every time I see it, I find something new that makes me break out in an idiotic grin. Patrick Swayze was THE perfect choice to play the mulleted, King-of-All-Bouncers Dalton. I could go on and on about how brilliant this film is, but I thought I would let the movie speak for itself:
Doctor: Your file says you’ve got a degree from NYU. What in?
Dalton: Philosophy.
Doctor: Any particular discipline?
Dalton: No. Not really. Man’s search for faith. That sort of s–t.
Emmett: Calling me “sir” is like putting an elevator in an outhouse, it don’t belong. I’m Emmett.
Steve: Being called a c–ksucker isn’t personal?
Dalton: No. It’s two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response.
Steve: What is somebody calls my mama a whore?
Dalton: Is she?
Wade Garrett: That gal’s got entirely too many brains to have an a– like that.
Wade Garrett: This place has a sign hangin’ over the urinal that says, “Don’t eat the big white mint.”
and … last … but certainly not least:
Jimmy: I used to f–k guys like you in prison.
Why the Library of Congress has not selected this as a film for the National Film Registry deserves a criminal investigation.
This is the legendary appearance by the hardcore punk band Fear on Saturday Night Live for the Halloween episode in October 1981. Fear were hired at the behest of John Belushi, who was a huge fan of Fear’s, and Michael O’Donoghue, that season’s head writer. Producer Dick Ebersol asked O’Donoghue what Fear was like and the infamous Mr. Mike explained that they were a pop group, just like the Carpenters. What resulted is mayhem and underground TV history.
O’Donoghue and Belushi bused in multiple punks from Washington D.C. (including, legend has it, Ian MacKaye). After being introduced by actor Donald Pleasance, the band started playing and the punks went completely nuts, violently slam dancing and stage diving. During the third song, one of the punks grabbed lead singer Lee Ving’s microphone and either said “F–k you New York” or “New Your sucks!” The scene faded to black and transitioned to a repeat of the infamous (and funny) satire of Norman Mailer’s sponsorship of Jack Henry Abbott, “Prose and Cons”.
Nowadays, such antics seem corny and quaint. But back when hardcore punk was virtually unknown to the masses, this moment was a sight to behold. One of the all-time best performances by a music guest on SNL.
“The King of Comedy” was Martin Scorsese’s follow-up to his legendary Jake LaMotta biopic “Raging Bull.” “King” flopped with audiences and got mixed reviews from critics. However, I think it’s one of Scorsese’s best films and as I much as I admire “Raging Bull,” I would watch “King” before “Bull” any day.
This movie seriously rubbed many the wrong way, because “King” did not resemble the typical Scorsese film. (There’s no gangsters, rat-a-tat dialogue and editing, or violence.) And star Robert DeNiro, as obnoxious autograph hound and wanna-be comedian Rupert Pupkin, likely really repulsed people. Granted, Jake LaMotta and Travis Bickle were scary characters, but let’s be honest, people love scary characters. Pupkin is the delusional loudmouth that most people go out of their way to avoid, let alone avoid seeing a movie about. But DeNiro really brings it in this role, as well as Jerry Lewis as talk show host Jerry Langford and Sandra Bernhard as DeNiro’s arguably more demented cohort Masha. Berhnard’s “seduction” of Lewis’s character is absolutely hilarious and frightening.
But I think time has been really kind to “King.” Uncomfortable, queasy comedy (i.e. “Curb Your Enthusiam,” “Louis”) has attained a certain kind of cache and if you like Larry David and Louis C.K., you should really give “King” a chance. “King” is one of the most brutal critiques of celebrity culture / worship ever created. It’s extremely uncomfortable to watch, but also very darkly funny.
Back when I was 12 years old or so and would be allowed to go off on my own at the local shopping mall, I used to spend a lot of my time at Walden Books. Every time I went, I used to peruse a huge book by Danny Peary called “Cult Movies.” For any of those who don’t know what this book is/was, it was the first major book to look at the phenomenon known as cult movies and examine these films from a critical, but non-judgmental viewpoint. Peary looked at a wide range of cult films, from the obvious (“Harold and Maude,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show”) to the classics (“Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane”) to … “Pink Flamingos.”
Peary included a lengthy synopsis of every film and the description of what happens in “Pink Flamingos” had me convulsing in laughter. The film is about two families competing to be “the filthiest people alive.” It’s about people who do all the wrong things and are defiantly proud of them. For someone who painstakingly always did the right thing, reading about this film and its characters made me levitate.
This film was like a holy grail for me for several years. The film was released on video in the early 1980s, but no video store located near me carried it. The local art house maybe showed it as a late night film only occasionally … but also had strict age requirements. It wasn’t until the summer before my last year of college that I finally found a video store that carried this and I rented it along with a lot of other Waters films that I had read about, but had never seen.
My initial reaction? Very disappointed, especially after all the build-up in my mind and not being able to see it for years. This isn’t a slam on the film. It’s just that nothing could have lived up to what I had expected this film to be in my mind. I actually preferred (and still prefer) Waters’ follow-up “Female Trouble.”
However, I saw it in a theater during its 25th anniversary in 1997 (when it was officially rated NC-17 for “for a wide range of perversions in explicit detail”) and finally appreciated it. “Pink Flamingos” is a film that works best watching it with lots of others, where you’re all sharing the collective embarrassment of seeing the most outrageous and disgusting human behavior together.
I still don’t think this is Waters’ best film, but it’s still pretty funny. This clip is one of my favorites. And while the characters are fully clothed, the language is pretty rough, so it’s definitely not safe for work. You gotta love those Delmarva accents.
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