Back when I was an aspiring filmmaker (as opposed to … you know … actually BEING a filmmaker … writing scripts, shooting on VHS, etc.), I always thought this song, from the 1988 album “Peepshow,” would have made a great song for a sleazy sex industry thriller set in L.A. The sleazy sex industry thriller has always been one of my favorite genres of film (i.e. Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore,” Gary Sherman’s “Vice Squad,” or Brian DePalma’s “Body Double”). “Peek-a-Boo” has always had a near-perfect mix of sleaze, glitz, and danger … and it’s catchy as hell.
P.S. If you have inclinations towards being a filmmaker, don’t waste your money and go to film school. Just write … and preferably shoot … your damn movie already! When you have a full 1080p HD camera at your disposal … on your freakin’ phone or iPod, for crying out loud … and with YouTube, you have instant distribution if no one officially buys it … you have no excuse if you’re even remotely serious. There’s no such thing as “aspiring” anymore. You just do it.
“Jackie Brown” was quite a shock for Tarantino fans when it came out in 1997. It shared some of the characteristics of his prior films (rat-a-tat dialogue, dark humor), but was much more subdued. The violence wasn’t as grisly and the focus was more on the characters. Because it didn’t explode off the screen like “Pulp Fiction,” many people didn’t like it. However, I think it’s one of Tarantino’s best films.
The biggest strength was the interplay between Pam Grier’s Jackie Brown and Robert Forster’s Max Cherry characters. The way these two characters flirt and grow fond of each other is remarkable and it plays out quite nicely. Most films would have these characters make their flirtation more obvious or play up the comedy more. But Tarantino has these characters circle each other a bit. It’s obvious there’s an attraction, but Jackie and Max are middle-aged, have had some many ups and downs in their lives, and are thrown together by Jackie’s arrest and Max’s role in helping bail her out as her bail bondsman. They’re interested in each other, but are cautious … without either one tipping their hat too much in either direction. It’s too bad this scene cuts out so soon. Especially because this is the best use of the Delfonics’ “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind” I’ve seen in any idiom.
It’s one of the best portrayals of a relationship “of a certain age” ever put on film. Though … it doesn’t quite work out the way moviegoers would necessarily want. The book it was based on (Elmore Leonard’s “Rum Punch”) had Jackie and Max running off together. However, Tarantino’s denouement takes a different direction. The denouement may not be satisfying because we like the characters a lot … but probably more truthful given Jackie’s and Max’s life experience.
El Duce was the lead singer of the debauched punk-metal band The Mentors. They became notorious in the mid-1980s during the Congressional hearings over wicked rock music and were called “the worst of the worst” of all bands recording at the time. Lyrics from their song “Golden Showers” are part of the Congressional record: “Bend up and smell my anal vapor / Your face is my toilet paper.” Sorry, but that s–t is funny!
Here are some of the highlights about Ministry’s Al Jourgensen’s brief friendship with Duce during the late 1980s/early-mid 1990s. Considering how debauched Jourgensen’s autobiography gets, the fact that Duce outdebauched Jourgensen is really saying something.
1. Al Jourgensen first met El Duce on the floor of a bathroom in San Francisco, naked from the waist down, lying in a pack of Dorito chips and vomit. Duce announced to Jourgensen that he had gone to high school with Jourgensen’s drum player. Duce then pissed all over himself, threw up, and passed out in his vomit, urine, and Doritos. Jourgensen helped Duce get himself together and take him to reunite with his drummer. When his drummer saw Duce, he almost stormed out and bailed on the show. Apparently, Duce allegedly attacked his drummer’s sister.
2. Duce tried to have sex with Jourgensen’s mom … in front of Jourgensen’s stepdad. Duce said, “Hey, that’s a pretty hot little b—h,” tackled Jourgensen’s mom, and tried to hump her. Jourgensen had to stop him by breaking a beer bottle over Duce’s head.
3. Duce used to go into Walgreens and steal Listerine and Scope because they had alcohol in them. Unfortunately, he would drink the mouthwash in the store, pass out, and then get arrested for theft.
4. Duce got so drunk one night he passed out. Jourgensen and his bandmates put lipstick on him and dressed him in women’s lingerie. They left him underneath the ice machine of the hotel. When the maids discovered him, they freaked out and started hitting him with a mop and spraying him with cleaner. Duce looked down at himself and said “What are you hitting me for? I look godd–n good today!”
5. Duce and his band the Mentors got paid $20,000 in beer to record an album. They got so messed up they never got halfway through a song before passing out. To add insult to injury, they recorded the album on a microcassette (the type of tape that used to be in answering machines) and turned in the microcassette to the record label. I don’t believe that album was ever released.
This clip is from the infamous Nick Broomfield documentary “Kurt & Courtney” where Duce claimed that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to “whack” Cobain. While Cobain conspiracy theorists believe that Duce’s subsequent death in 1997 was due to his admission of this plot, it was likely due to the types of things that happen when you’re a degenerate drunk and proud of it. Duce got demolished by a train when he was wasted and tried to play “chicken” with an oncoming train to impress some fans. Unfortunately, his leg got stuck on the track and realizing his death was imminent, continued to “Sieg Heil” the train before it demolished him.
By the way, Jourgensen’s autobiography “Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen” is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying. It’s one of the wildest rock and roll memoirs ever written and makes Motley Crue’s “The Dirt” look like “The Bridges of Madison County.”
“Cleanflix” is a riveting documentary about a number of companies during the early part of the 2000s who sold and rented edited versions of PG-13 and R rated films to people who wanted to see popular films, but didn’t want to be exposed to violence, sexuality, nudity, or profanity. These companies, most of whom were housed in Utah, would edit the films themselves and to skirt anti-privacy concerns, they would require the customer to buy a legitimate copy of the movie and the companies would edit the film themselves, sending the customer a copy of the “clean” version. The creative community in Hollywood was understandably upset with the way these companies edited their films and eventually got many of the companies shut down through legal means. However, a few rogue companies and dealers tried to stay in business, mistakenly using a loophole in “fair use” laws, claiming the edited films were for “educational” use. Eventually, these companies were shut down as well.
“Cleanflix” provides a detailed look at this controversy, going into some of the odd decisions the edited film movement would make regarding certain films. For example, the edited version of “Fargo” apparently showed the beyond-gruesome wood-chipper murder scene in graphic detail, but cut out some dialogue regarding an uncircumcised penis. In addition, some companies apparently provided PG-rated versions of the “Saw” films (a group of films routinely referred to as “torture porn”), but refused to sell or rent an edited version of “Brokeback Mountain” for so-called “general principles.” Mmmm-kay.
The documentary also centers on one dealer, Daniel Thompson, who became the face of the edited films movement, despite the objection of many of the people involved behind the scenes (including the original company called Clean Flicks, whom Thompson was never a part of, aside from being a buyer of their films). Thompson attempted to stay in business despite the court orders and became a popular interviewee for various news programs and talk shows. Thompson earned the enmity of his fellow edited film advocates for many reasons detailed in the film, but later became embroiled in a severe moral and legal scandal, which involved him pleading no contest to sexual battery of two 14-year old girls in 2008.
Arguably the most telling summary of the documentary came from Noel Murray’s and Scott Tobias’s Onion AV Club’s review of the film from 2009: “The real story isn’t just about intellectual property; it’s about the daily difficulties that the devoutly religious have in trying to participate in mainstream American culture while retaining as much of the purity of their own beliefs as they can. To some extent, the filmmakers fighting the clean-up business are contending that their work grapples with the ugly, messy, sexy world that some Mormons would rather not confront, and that the PG versions actually do their viewers a disservice. Certainly what ultimately happens to Daniel (in turns of events loaded with irony upon irony) proves that avoiding R-rated movies may not mean that you avoid an R-rated life.” Well put.
However, as much as I agree with the Hollywood filmmakers who objected to their work being tampered with, I would agree with one point the edited film advocates make: Hollywood frequently creates sanitized versions of their films available for airplanes and television. Why aren’t these versions made available to people on a retail level who might enjoy them? The advocates requested that Hollywood make these versions available for sale and rental and the studios responded that there was no market for these edited versions … an assertion discounted by the vast number of people who purchased and rented edited films from these dealers. Granted, as copyright holders, the studios and filmmakers can do whatever they want with their intellectual property. However, since many studios have increasingly licensed their older catalog titles to other companies for release on DVD and Blu-Ray, why would they close off another source of revenue, even if all they did was license the edited versions they already created to another company? It wouldn’t cut into the sales of the unedited films, because the audience who would want the edited films aren’t buying them anyway. And, as long as it was clear that what was being sold was an edited version (with the option of the filmmaker taking his / her name off the edited version if they so chose), I wouldn’t see an issue with it. Of course, that subject is open to debate, but I will say the edited film folks make a legitimate point.
This has to be one of the saddest and creepiest films I’ve ever seen. This is a documentary about two VERY obsessed fans of Tiffany, the late 1980s teen-pop singer. One of which is a 50-something man with Asberger’s syndrome (who Tiffany at one point issued a restraining order against). The other is a 30-something transgender person with issues of their own. Despite the subject matter, it’s not quite the freak show you think it’s going to be. OK, it IS a bit of a freak show. But I also felt incredibly moved by these two very lonely and deluded individuals who are obsessed with a pop icon that’s over 25 years past her prime … and who wind up meeting each other 2/3 of the way through the film. You’d think these two would be perfect for each other as a romantic couple … but this is not a Hollywood rom-com. “I Think We’re Alone Now” reminds me of those immensely sad Velvet Undeground songs like “New Age” or “Candy Says” … or the version of “Madame George” Van Morrison recorded for “Astral Weeks” … in that, they seem sensationalistic, but are ultimately sad and moving tales about loneliness and the inability to connect because of tragic mental or physical chemistry.
Yes, the film seems like it was shot on someone’s phone. But when the subject matter is this rich, the technology involved is beside the point.
Damn. What the hell happened to Pixar? Never has a creative entity sustained more outstanding, classic films as they did from 1995-2010. I can’t think of any filmmaker (even Martin Scorsese) who sustained consistently excellent films over a 15 year period.
This is the final scene of “Toy Story 3” where Andy (the lead human character) gives up his toys for good as he goes to college. If you want to be an a–hole, you can sneer and say this is some sad statement about how we as a culture have become too attached to “things.” For me, this is one of the most moving portrayals of someone passing on to another stage of their life. And damn, if it doesn’t move me to tears every time I see it.
Hands down, the funniest Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment of all time. From Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2002, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (aka Robert Smigel) “interviews” Star Wars fanatics as they wait on line to be first to see “Attack of the Clones.” Albeit, this is a bit cruel, but hysterically funny.
Andy Kaufman’s best friend and co-conspirator Bob Zmuda had plenty of great stories when he sat down with Marc Maron for his WTF podcast. But arguably the best story Zmuda told was about the three weeks he worked for legendary screenwriter Norman Wexler (“Joe,” “Serpico,” “Saturday Night Fever”) in the early 1970s. Kaufman apparently got a lot of ideas (especially for his obnoxious Tony Clifton character) based on Zmuda’s tales of working for Wexler. Zmuda reveals how Wexler really got his knack for writing intense, gritty dialogue. Hilarious, jaw-dropping stuff, especially the tale about Wexler and Zmuda terrorizing a bakery. This incident sounds like it was lifted from a Lars Von Trier film starring Sacha Baron Cohen, but it really happened, according to Zmuda. Not safe for work. If you like what you hear, you really need to read Zmuda’s terrific 1999 book “Andy Kaufman Revealed” which delivers more Wexler tales, as well as tales about Kaufman.
This legendary and infamous opening credit sequence to director David Fincher’s classic serial murder thriller “Se7en” may not seem particularly innovative in 2003. But in the fall of 1995, this completely blew we away (and I must say, still does to this day). This credit sequence told you all you needed to know about how different this film would be from all other detective / serial killer films before it.
“Se7en” is one of the most influential pieces of pop culture in the past twenty years. However, most of its impact has arguably been on TV. Without it, we would never have had shows like “CSI” and “Dexter,” or even “24” and “House.” I distinctly remember seeing this credit sequence on a huge screen with booming digital sound that was so bass heavy I felt it in my bowels.
Extremely creeping and unnerving. Probably not safe for work. Major credit should be given to Harris Savides, who shot the sequence, and Angus Wall who edited it. The music is remix of Nine Inch Nails’ classic “Closer” by the band Coil.
The incredibly moving final song from John Cameron Mitchell’s brilliant rock opera “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” This is from the 2001 film adaptation. A great, great film and a much more transgressive and brilliant musical than Laz Buhrman’s “Moulin Rouge” released that same year. Don’t get me wrong. I actually admire “Moulin Rouge” a lot, but “Hedwig” kicks “Moulin Rouge”‘s ass.
Neil Patrick Harris recently announced he will be starring in a Broadway revival of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” It will be weird to see “Hedwig” removed from its punk rock roots, but I’m sending my best wishes that they can pull it off.
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