Sketchy Details

Midnight Rec: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

There are three reasons why I've chosen Night of the Living Dead as today's Midnight Rec:

1. My questionable horror film a month wall calendar commanded me to. I don't go against a sign that strong. It's why I relaunched the feature with The Brain that Wouldn't Die.
2. George A. Romero turned 70 years old two days ago (4 Feb) and I thought it would be a fitting tribute to the godfather of zombie cinema. The man's still kicking out ...of the Dead films like they're going out of style. Well, technically they are. What with the influx of fast zombies with superpowers and the ability to learn, use logic, and love.
3. It's a wonderful zombie (technically living dead, but the terms have practically become interchangeable) film. I think that's the key here. It's not just fanboy praise: it's solid filmmaking.

Night of the Living Dead is the unassuming brainchild of writer/director George A. Romero and writer John A. Russo. It sets the standard for all future living dead films. Take a ragtag group of strangers from a community, lock them up into a questionably safe locations, and watch them struggle to survive each other and the unending assault of the living dead.

While Romero would certainly add social, economic, and political subtext to his later films (he loves riffing on consumerism, hence Dawn of the Dead in a shopping mall and Land of the Dead with its towering wealthy shopping oasis), Night of the Living Dead is all about interactions in the face of a disaster. The zombies are great. That's hard to question. The character development through choices made in a chaotic situation is far greater. From the initial "They're coming to get you Barbara" to the family in the basement banding together against living and undead intruders, how the characters choose to deal with each other is the key to the film's success.

Yes, meaning was created with the casting of Duane Jones as Ben, the leader of the survivors. No, Romero did not set out to create a film exposing the dangers of unquestioning racism. He's said many times that he cast Duane Jones because he was the best actor for the part regardless of the color of his skin. Jones knew when he was cast the film would be seen in a different light, and Romero and Russo realized that soon enough.

Through a stupid loophole in copyright law that destroyed many films in this time period, the creators lost the rights to the film by omission of the (c) symbol in the final theatrical version. This means that anyone can use and manipulate the material however they want. There are rereleases with five seconds of new footage where the profit goes to the new "creators." There are unlicensed remakes, colorized editions, and redubbed recordings constantly shooting out at consumers. It's a risk to pick out any edition. Some are cropped, cut, edited, rerecorded, reorganized, or digitally manipulated without warning. Others are so low quality you can't tell what's happening on the screen. I've yet to find an edition with subtitles, probably because the economic appeal of the film for companies is a free film with a built in audience.

I've embedded the cleanest copy I could find online below. Of course, I feel any film fan should have a watchable copy in their DVD collection, though not everyone would agree.

Jump.

Game Time: Record Tripping

I like rhythm games. The genesis is surely an obsession with Mario Paint's music creation function where I would spend hours writing original songs with dog barks and car horns until my family sent me to my room to get the noise out of their heads. It grew to its peak in the late 90s when I began playing Dance Dance Revolution like it was my job at home and in the arcades. The interest hasn't faded away, even if the time available for Samba de Amigo and Amplitude has.

Record Tripping, a new game from Bell Brothers available at Newgrounds, is a different kind of rhythm game. It is not about the creation of music or playing in rhythm. Instead, the game plays tribute to the lyricism of Alice in Wonderland, combining spoken word with record scratches. You manipulate your scroll wheel like a turntable and your left click as an effect button to control movement in time. Scrolling down moves the recording backwards; up, forward. The goal changes in each of five levels, from navigating a ball through a maze to getting bunny rabbits on a train. There is a time limit and other factors of physics involved to make the game more challenging.

Though it does not take longer than five minutes to play, the clever controls and storybook-styled illustrations make Record Trippinga game with a good amount of replayability. The time based leader board doesn't hurt, either. You can also tweet your score. This may not seem like a big feature but it still amazes me that more online games aren't trying to use this feature as a publicity tool.

If you need a quick break from your work, Record Tripping is a fun diversion through Wonderland.

Best Original Song Lives! A Round-Up of the Oscar Nominees

I'm so excited to see that the music branch of the Academy Awards got their act together this year with their new rules and actually found five nominees. It really seemed like the category was going to disappear as the nominees dwindled each year and new rules were written to fix it. They've pulled out of their tailspin and found five nominees. They aren't necessarily the songs I'd pick, but I can't complain about their choices.

All five nominees below the jump.

Grammy/Oscar Round-Up

Grammys: The awards split in ways I didn't expect, with the exception of Gaga. I nailed NARAS viewing her only as a dance artist with a breakout hit. Swift takes Album because Kanye West is a braying ass; Beyonce takes Song because even NARAS doesn't understand that award recognizes the songwriting, not the finished product; Kings of Leon take Record because they sure weren't going to give Dave Matthews Band Album of the Year and something rock needed to be in. Sadly, with the exception of Beyonce, I see every other nominee's career on the decline in the very near future. Country cross-overs have  a very short life span, dance acts are replaced by the next new sound, and older rock acts get nominated just because enough people remember they exist.

Zac Brown Band took Best New Artist, probably because the country branch could band together and win over the smaller R&B branch while everyone else scratched their heads over who MGMT, Silversun Pickups, and The Ting Tings were.

Eminem won every rap award he was up for. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs lost Alternative Album. A musical comedy album beat stand-up comedy albums. A revival won Theatrical Album category over new shows. And the sky is still blue.

And now for less cynicism.

Oscars: Tomorrow morning, we will know who is nominated for the Academy Awards. This will be a momentous occasion for many possible reasons.

For one thing, we'll see how the return to 10 Best Picture nominees plays out. It seems certain for Avatar, Precious, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air to be nominated, but what else? Will we see populist choices like Star Trek or The Hangover? Acting vehicles like Julie & Julia or Nine? Animated films like Up? Foreign films? Documentaries? Wait, scratch that last one. That'll never happen. 

Another possible change is the Best Original Song category. It's not obligatory any longer. If the shortlisted songs didn't score high enough at the music branch's required screening, there will be no Best Original Song category. So there could be 0, 2, 3, or 5 nominees tomorrow.

Then there are the acting categories. Every single one seems to have one spot up for grabs, at least. Best Supporting Actress is the least clear, as everyone and their kindergarten teacher has given the award to Mo'Nique. Will we see multiple Up in the Air's or Inglourious Basterds or Nines to fill out the category? Will they be selected by performance quality or their ability to sit politely with a genuine smile on their face when Mo'Nique wins the Oscar?

Speaking of the muddy acting categories, could Avatar's massive green screen acting campaign pay off with a nomination for Sigourney Weaver in Supporting Actress? The campaign is smartly showing stills of Weaver in her human form in the film, in the green suit, and the corresponding animated shot showing how much of her performance transferred to the CGI of the film. A similar campaign is brewing for Zoe Saldana, tough Weaver has the edge in being a two-time previous nominee who is also the only woman ever nominated for a sci-fi film. If the Academy remembers how much they used to love Weaver, we could really be making history.

Most important of all is Best Director. Why? Katherine Bigelow is the favorite to win Director at this point. If the domination of precursors didn't push her that way, the DGA did. As Roger Ebert tweeted enthusiastically, 57 of the 60 DGA winners went on to win Best Director; 58 of 60 went on to win Best Picture. Unless the Academy really votes for the creation of new jobs in the industry (it happens), Bigelow will most likely win if nominated.

Of course, this could all be moot tomorrow when Clint Eastwood and Rob Marshall receive Best Director nominations over Bieglow and Lee Daniels, Nine, Invictus, An Education, The Last Station, and A Serious Man fill out Best Picture out of familiarity, and Best Song is announced with five nominees coming from Disney, an adapted musical, a foreign film, a music-influenced character piece, and another animated film. But a guy can dream.

Midnight Rec: I Bury the Living (1958)

I don't know how the weather is by you, but it is absolutely freezing in my neck of NJ. It's cold enough that I've called off plans to take a trip into NYC for research and a movie. I have two schools of thought on dealing with inopportune conditions: watch something that takes place in far greater conditions, or watch something that makes me realize things could be a lot worse. Today is the day for the latter.

I Bury the Living is a polarizing B-Movie classic from director Albert Band. You hear stories about producer interference in films all the time. Sometimes an ending is too dark; other times, too confusing or otherwise off-putting. With this film, all three have been cited as reasons why the original ending of the film was changed. 

I Bury the Living is the story of man who discovers he has the ability to cause anyone to die with the use of a funeral plot map. It's an effective device within the film that results in a very nice build of suspense. Originally a purely supernatural tale, the film's ending was changed to offer a logical explanation for everything that occurred. Some hate the hackneyed twist ending, claiming it makes no sense (it doesn't); others embrace the film for its style and performances (they're good). There are some very disorienting and unnerving visual effects used in what's mostly a one-room film. The transformation from cemetery office to psychological landscape is slick and stylish. The constraints of the budget do not show.

Sadly, this is a horror film that often gets dumped into 5/10/25/50/100 Scary Movie collections with a poor transfer and unexplained cuts to the running time. You could do much worse than this YouTube upload, but I'm sure there's a better quality torrent available. The problem is how the film lacks an actual DVD release by itself. 

The trailer is available after the jump.

Side by Side by Susan Blackwell

What is Side by Side by Susan Blackwell? It is an entertaining online talk show at Broadway.com wherein Susan Blackwell--star of the wonderful, sadly closed, but not forgotten, Broadway musical [Title of Show]--interviews Broadway stars in intimate locations, like a corner table at Hooters or the upper deck of a Times Square tourist bus. The joy comes from how off-beat the questions are and how willing Susan Blackwell is to invade their personal space (for fun, not malevolence) to hilariously awkward effect. Some of the stars really embrace, others are game but end up with a hundred yard stare as Susan licks them on the cheek. Yes, as in, her tongue to their cheek.

Susan has a great presence in person and on film and was the perfect choice to become a correspondent and host on Broadway.com. For fans of musicals, this show is a treasure chest of references to shows, well-known and obscure alike.

I have a feeling, even if you don't know who half these people are (though you might recognize some for playing a doctor, lawyer, hooker, drug addict, or murder victim on a Law & Order or CSI, as most working NYC actors are practically required to), you'll still find the show entertaining. It's almost like rediscovering reality TV for the first time. Your apprehensive about what is going to happen and why you should care about total strangers, then get sucked into how ridiculous the scenario is. Just bask in the beauty of an online talk show where a conversation can include diversions on "handj's" and Equus or breast pumps and Cher.

There are only two episodes so far, but with the amount of stars in the opening credits (including "Hey, wasn't that chick on CSI?" and "That's the music director from that Legally Blonde reality show, right?"), I don't see this going away anytime soon. I've embedded the first episode after the jump to give you a taste of how this works Hmmm...there's embed code that I've inserted properly, but the video says it's unavailable. Episode 1: Sutton Foster, Jonathan Groff & Laura Benanti. You should watch the second episode to see the full potential.

Film Review: Red (2008)

I would consider myself a fan of Lucky McKee. This is the writer/director that brought forth some of the more engaging horror films of the 2000s, including May, The Woods, and Roman. He's the type of director I like to see do well in the industry because he genuinely cares about the collaborative aspect of filmmaking. He surrounds himself with a talented cast and crew and remains loyal to those he really worked well with. Angela Bettis, for example, has collaborated with him on four projects, including a jump from actress to director in the role-reversal scenario of Roman. However, McKee seems to be struggling to actually break into the studio system. His film The Woods went from being so protected and cherished M. Night Shyamalan had to change his film title to The Village to being dumped straight to DVD with all special features erased from the disc. More unnerving is his role in the 2008 drama Red.

The short version is this: about halfway through filming, McKee was removed as director of the film and replaced with Trygve Allister Diesen. Rumors of tension between producers and director abounded over the web and it was unknown how much or little of Red would actually be taken from McKee's filming. Thankfully, the finished project not only bares his credit but a clear indication of his influence on the production.

Red, based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, is the story of Avery Ludlow, a kind old man whose best friend in the world is his dog Red. One day, while fishing, a group of teenagers attempt to rob him at gunpoint and eventually shoot Red at point-blank range to punish the old man. Avery decides to seek an apology from the boys, but it seems their families have a bit too much power and skill at lying for him to resolve the issues in a civilized manner.

McKee's fingerprints are all over this film and have never been used to greater effect. Instead of exploiting the violence against Red, the film focuses on the interactions between characters. The dialog moves at a natural pace with realistic responses. There is no overacting even when the film should be reaching made-for-TV level histrionics. The film is natural. McKee's skill as a director lies not in an innovative vision, but execution so believable that any last act twist or turn he can toss at you feels like the only conclusion. This is not meant to downplay the abilities of Diesen as a director. Obviously, replacing someone on a film shoot is a difficult position to be in and the fact that the film comes off as cohesive as it does is a testament to both directors' capabilities.

The cast is a great mix of veterans and newcomers that work well off of each other. Brian Cox, as Avery, would have been in consideration for the Best Actor Oscar if this was a higher budgeted film with a wider theatrical release. His performance is likable and gruff at the same time. This is a beautiful portrait of a man who loses everything he has yet still chooses to be a good outstanding citizen. As the trio of wayward teens, Noel Fisher, Kyle Gallner, and Shiloh Fernandez accurately portray the dynamics of a group of young people knowingly acting out just because they can. From the remorseless ringleader (Noel Fisher) to the reluctant whipping boy (Kyle Gallner) to the thrill-seeker (Shiloh Fernandez), the commitment to realism in their rebellious mindset makes the circumstances of the film all the more disturbing. Also noteworthy is Robert Englund as one of the fathers, riding on the coattails of the richer family to upgrade his home at the price of silence.

The only thing that seems to be out of place in the film is the score. It's a bit too predictable for this type of film. It's almost like someone wanted a very standard score for a thriller that didn't actually watch the film. The film is quieter than that, more subtle. It did not require pounding music cues and sudden bursts of melodramatic orchestrations to get its point across.

The line of believability is blurred when the action sequences begin. As far as I'm concerned, all of the major stunt set-pieces of the film could have been achieved with a very light hand and crafty editing like the murder of Red. However, the film jumps from nuanced drama to explosive action film and back again all throughout the climax. This film didn't need all the bells and whistles of your standard high-octane thriller and the ending suffers for it. It's not that these big scenes aren't well-executed; they are simply out of place in what could have been a quiet, powerful film.

Red is an upsetting film in the best way possible. It's very easy to grow attached to Avery, making the entire arc of the story that much more important. If you are in the mood for a well-acted drama with clean execution, Red is a great choice.

Film Review: The Butcher (2007)

Warning: The reviewed film is so stupid and poorly made that a potential viewer must not approach the content lightly. Caution must be exercised to preserve your brain power.

Even with the diminished expectations that come from a fake snuff film, The Butcher serves as an example of everything that can possibly go wrong in modern low budget horror. Four average citizens are kidnapped, gagged, chained, and fitted with helmet-cameras for their direct to video debut as victims in a snuff film. The film randomly jumps from the perspective of the director and staff to the victims. The camera inexplicably shakes as if anyone with a viewfinder is constantly seizing. The quality is grainy, the color washed out, and the sets as drab as oatmeal on dry white toast.

Anyone going into a fake snuff film knows not to expect high production values. But there is a difference between a film with a shoestring budget and a film that doesn't know what it's doing. The Butcher is clearly the latter. From the quality of sound to the believability of the effects, the film fails at every possible angle of technique. I'm almost willing to say the film would have been improved if they left the lens caps on and forgot to turn on the mics.

It's almost impossible to review a film like The Butcher. There is a clear audience for this type of film and they only care about the gore, not the film quality. Even at this The Butcher fails. The effects are cut away from with a jump to a different camera every time something interesting happens. The most you see is a puddle of blood or low-rent bruising/cuts in a reflection. I normally am against gratuitous unjustified gore, but in this sub-genre that's the name of the game. If nothing else, the room should be a hazard to the actors from the amount of goo pumped onto the floor. Karo syrup and food coloring aren't so expensive as to require a delicate hand and moderation. Toss in some dish soap and clean-up is no longer an issue.

Perhaps most offensive of all is the ending. The implausibility reaches unforetold heights as the conceit of the production of a snuff film told from multiple perspectives is rendered impossible by the last ten minutes. If the footage primarily used during the film is removed from the rest of the footage, how can it possibly have been pieced together for what the viewer sees? It can't. I'm willing to accept a pig-masked muscle-man raping his victims in any hole, natural or carved out, in a warehouse with big open windows completely surrounded by a business district, but I can't get past this ending.

Even die-hard snuff fans should avoid this film. There's a reason the film lacks DVD distribution: it doesn't deserve it. I can't imagine what possessed Netflix to carry it at all.

Cannonball Read 2: Book 10: The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

Still on the back list of Cannonball Readings. If I posted more than once a week on it, I'd probably catch up. Oh well. Onwards.

I understand that Non-Fiction is a very broad market with lots of competition. Bookstores can fill an entire display table with the month's new releases on current politics, World War II, or scintillating new biographies of Baroque musicians. It becomes essential to nail a great title that stands out amongst the clutter. The Post-American World is a great title, but it's also my biggest issue with Fareed Zakaria's excellent book. It's misleading at best, attention/anger baiting at worst. The title would imply that Zakaria believe America no longer has power in the world or will no longer exists. Thankfully, that's not his argument at all.

Zakaria provides a thoughtful, well-researched look into what he refers to as "the rise of the rest." This means that many other nations that previously struggled to establish themselves in significant political, economical, and social ways on the international scene have not only gained a foothold, but are rapidly expanding in ways that starts to quickly shift the balance of power in the world. Zakaria basically argues that globalization, that four letter political word that has traditionally been viewed as a destructive failure, has finally started to come around to the original goals. We, as a nation, can no longer survive doing the same kind of politics and economics we have used for the past sixty years to be a dominant force in the world. It has become essential to begin collaborating with other nations on international policies or risk being left behind. 

For some odd reason, compromise scares many Americans. It's almost like revealing a sign of weakness to say we might need help once in a while. Zakaria argues that this attitude can be very damaging. He predicts that the US will face more and more opposition in international relations if the country continues to act alone on international matters. It was one thing when many of the nations America worked on were newly established after long colonial periods or post-war establishment; it's quite another when the nations have clout in international politics and have established their own political and economic culture. What was previously viewed as helpful is becoming increasingly viewed as hostile. 

Zakaria spends much of the book discussing rising superpowers like India and China, comparing their achievements to US achievements on superficial levels before exploring how and why they've achieved the growth they have, what they've learned from America, and where they can possibly go in the future. 

If you want an interesting read on how the world's political climate is changing, I doubt you can do much better in an easily approachable text than Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World.

Midnight Rec: God Told Me To (1976)

Director/Writer Larry Cohen has helped create some very strange films in his lifetime. While there is much to love and much to hate in his filmography, as far as I'm concerned, 1976 cult classic God Told Me To stands above the rest.

A random wave of mass murders has hit New York City. The only connective thread is the killer claiming "God told me to" before committing suicide. A Catholic NYPD detective is running the case, and all logical thoughts are pushed to the wayside as he begins to see signs of a Christ figure possibly influencing the erratic behavior of the killers. The result is a twisted journey into the power of faith and the danger of obsession.

I know I have my own interpretation of the final scenes of God Told Me To. I know others have a conflicting interpretation of those very scenes. The only thing certain about this film is its ability to leave the viewer with a strong sense of something, even if that sense is confusion or hatred. To call it a polarizing weird film would be a great disservice. Cohen crafted something special here. He allowed nothing to get in the way of memorable scenes, such as a cop (played by Andy Kaufman) losing it at the St. Patrick's Day Parade, actually shot at the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade without a permit.

God Told Me To is a public domain film. It is available for streaming on Netflix. If you want to hunt around for a copy to download or stream through a free web service, please try to find a good looking copy of the film. The subtlety of colors is beautifully handled and the detail is lost all too often in these quick uploads of the film.

The trailer is posted after the bump. Point of warning: the voice over makes it seem like the film is very cut and dry in its interpretation, but that's a gross oversimplification.