A gem from the soundtrack of Jody Hill’s beyond twisted 2009 mall cop film “Observe and Report.” This is a slow-boil blues/psychedelic number from an obscure 1970 artist named “Patto.” If it seems like nothing special at first, please stay with it, because it explodes at the end into some terrific scream-singing and crunchy guitar work. By the way, aside from Martin Scorsese, PT Anderson, and Wes Anderson, there is no filmmaker who assembles a better and cooler rock soundtrack than Jody Hill. I’ve been checking out Hill’s “Eastbound and Down” HBO show on DVD and my favorite MC5 song “Miss X” made a very prominent cameo.
I can’t find the original version from the stage album, so this really good, but not quite as good version from the movie soundtrack will have to do. The best song from a stellar modern musical. “Hedwig” is everything “Rent” claimed to be: radical, transgressive, emotional, and groundbreaking. The film version (which is probably the only way you can see it these days) is great. It’s so damn good, I almost threw something at the smug host at a local film society back in 2001 when he snickered about how “wacky” this film was. Yes, there are some funny moments here and there, but the film is about as grim and heartbreaking as “Pink Floyd The Wall.”
For those who don’t know, Joy Division was the band the members of New Order were in before their lead singer Ian Curtis left this mortal coil by his own hand. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” may be Joy Division’s most famous song (its become so mainstream these days I heard it in Safeway over the PA sandwiched between Ronnie James Dio and Michael Jackson a month or two ago), but “Atmosphere” is arguably their best. The video is directed by legendary photographer Anton Corbijn (who also directed Nirvana’s classic “Heart Shaped Box” video). If you like what you hear/see, be sure to check out Corbijn’s superlative 2007 biopic on Curtis “Control.”
One of the best, most brutal, and weirdest Australian films ever made is getting a major American reissue via Alamo Drafthouse Films. “Wake in Fright” was thought to be a lost film, but a negative in great shape was found a few years ago and the film was restored. This is the Australian “Deliverance”. Director Ted Kotcheff later went on to direct “North Dallas Forty” (arguably, the best American football film ever made) and the original “First Blood” (a great film, especially when you forget the moronic blockbuster “Rambo” sequel).
As Martin Scorsese said, “WAKE IN FRIGHT is a deeply – and I mean deeply – unsettling and disturbing movie. I saw it when it premiered at Cannes in 1971, and it left me speechless. Visually, dramatically, atmospherically and psychologically, it’s beautifully calibrated and it gets under your skin one encounter at a time. I’m excited that WAKE IN FRIGHT has been preserved and restored and that it is finally getting the exposure it deserves.”
Of all the raunchy nostalgia comedies to ride the wave of success of “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” “The Hollywood Knights” is probably the best. Featuring Michelle Pfeiffer, Tony Danza, Fran Drescher, and last, but certainly not least, Robert Wuhl as the immortal Newbomb Turk when they were young and unknown, “The Hollywood Knights” is one of those rare movies that may not be particularly good in the traditional sense, but every time it’s on, damn if I’m not watching it beginning to end. Which, of course, means it’s totally f–king great. Someone posted the entire movie on YouTube, so watch it before the copyright holders get wise to it. And because of nudity, language, and severely raunchy R-rated humor, not safe for work.
I missed this one a couple of days ago, but I just wanted to pay tribute to one of my all-time favorite character actors. I remember first seeing Lom when I was 5 years old in “The Return of the Pink Panther,” playing Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau’s character’s long-suffering boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus. He was quite good in any number of movies he appeared in, but in addition to Dreyfus, my favorites are the original “Ladykillers” from 1955, his KGB spy in “Hopscotch” (1980) and as the kindly neurologist in David Cronenberg’s “The Dead Zone” (1983).
Here is one of my favorite Lom / Dreyfus scenes, from the opening of 1976’s “The Pink Panther Strikes Again.” Dreyfus is leaving a mental hospital after being driven mad by being Clouseau’s boss, but goes off the deep end again after running into Clouseau. This is a bit slapsticky (director Blake Edwards’s stock in trade), but it still brings a smile to my face.
The cultural success of 1984’s “This is Spinal Tap” unleashed not only several films, but an entire genre we now know, sometimes love, and sometimes loathe, called “mockumentary.” Some of the mockumentaries that have followed in “This is Spinal Tap”‘s wake have been good, some bad. “Fear of a Black Hat” is on the good end of things. Granted, it’s not a perfect movie and it’s very uneven, but it’s also quite funny, intelligent, and charming. And if you watch it more than once, it will definitely grow on you like many good comedies inevitably do. I remember reading about this in “Film Threat” magazine back in 1993 and when it hit one of my local theaters in the spring of 1994, I was intrigued enough to check it out. I think it was a test release, since it didn’t get national distribution until later that summer. I remember being one of two paying customers in the theater (and the showtime was a discounted matinee) and I remember liking it a lot. I saw it many months later when it came out on video and liked it even more. The attached trailer seems a little corny by today’s standards, but don’t let that dissuade you from checking it out. It’s a solid mockumentary. And trivia note: the beautiful female interviewer is Kasi Lemmons, director of the brilliant “Eve’s Bayou,” “The Caveman’s Valentine,” and “Talk to Me”. (Sorry, I have a bit of a crush on Ms. Lemmons)
Cundieff popped up later on Michael Moore’s 1990s show “TV Nation” and has been involved with many great comedy TV shows, from”Chappelle’s Show” to “The Wanda Sykes Show.” Cundieff’s a very funny man. Let’s hope he gives us another feature soon.
While Paul Bartel’s “Eating Raoul” was distributed by the “classics” division of a major studio (in this case, 20th Century Fox) back in 1982, it’s still one of the best “indie” films of that decade (when “indie” actually meant something). It’s also one of the funniest. The premise is genius. A financially struggling couple, Paul and Mary Bland (played by Bartel and Andy Warhol/Roger Corman regular Mary Woronov), can’t seem to break out of their dead-end jobs to achieve their dream of opening a restaurant. Since their apartment building is overrun with rich perverts and swingers, they come up with the genius notion of luring these lovely folks to their apartment with an ad in a swingers newspaper, killing them, and then stealing their money. Trouble ensues when they bring in locksmith/burglar Raoul as a business partner who helps them dispose of the bodies. Despite “Raoul”‘s grim, blacker-than-black subject matter, the movie is actually very sweet (though it feels odd to say that, given the perverse subject matter). A great example of how you can handle otherwise offensive subject matter in a funny, relatively non-offensive way. However, it still more than earns its R-rating, so probably not the best film to show your parents or people you don’t know that well. The Criterion Collection just released a lovely Blu-Ray version of “Raoul” with all the extras you would expect from them. Dave says check it out.
“Best Worst Movie” is a truly funny and charming documentary about the cult following of “Troll 2,” considered by many to be the worst movie ever made. The focus of the film is George Hardy, an Alabama dentist who was the star of “Troll 2” (made back in 1990) and features him relishing his newfound cult fame at fan screenings and other events. On one level, this looks like a Christopher Guest-directed mockumentary about delusional show-biz wannabes (the director Claudio Fragasso is DEFINITELY in this category). However, Hardy comes across as such a sweet, endearing person, that you feel his joy as hundreds of people applaud for him like he’s Brad Pitt and, being high on this success, feel his pain when he attends a horror convention and people don’t seem to care about him or the film he was in. “Best Worst Movie” is a great example of the pleasures and pitfalls of being a “geek celebrity,” when you’re famous for doing something considered freakish. It’s also one of the nicest, non-cliched portrayals of Southerners I’ve ever seen.
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