Weekly Viewings From The To-Watch Pile #6

Aka. The Harmony Korine Special

I did rewatch Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers (2009) as well, but as the film has its own extended review I do not need to talk about it again unless new and changing thoughts develop from future viewings. I am going to include the two short films that come with the British DVD release here – Blood of Havana and Mac and Plac – however; I am unsure if these are available on the US version of the DVD, so I cannot say if they are easily accessible.

Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989)

From http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/blog/roger_and_me.jpg

‘A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.’ – From IMDB

Going into this, I was hesitant ever since I starting doubting about Moore being a credible documentary director. Here he is the earnest, good willed person he would still be years later, making a very personal work. As a documentarian his use of secondary footage makes me wished he made subjected video essays that projected his opinions rather than documentaries that tried to combine this and factual information. The problem is with Moore is how he edits footage; when you start to notice, it makes it much more difficult for him to make credible statements when he may have compromised the information, even if you agree with him. Most documentaries are biased for one opinion or another, and those that try to be balanced are still effected by the editing, but with Moore it feels that he is trying to force a political message of his, continually trying to ring emotional sympathy more than facts, without a strong enough base to support it.

Blood of Havana (Harmony Korine)

A short using characters from Trash Humpers involving a political monologue against glossy recorded images. It doesn’t feel like the sort of work Korine is best at.

Act Da Fool (Harmony Korine, 2010)

‘A series of hazy 8mm vignettes, accompanied by a soft, lilting voice over, in which girls skulk around schoolyards, spray graffiti, drink, smoke, pose and embrace, evoking the loneliness, confusion and overwhelming wonder of growing up.’ – From MUBI

Despite being an advert for clothes, Korine manages to make a charming and thoughtful character piece beyond its original intentions. Interestingly, from comments I’ve read from the film’s YouTube page, objections have been raised that this is a racist depiction of these girls, but the thought not only never came to mind, but seems illogical to me. While I cannot make any grand claims about this, I do wonder, especially since one of the defenders of the short stated that they were black themselves and saw this as merely part of Korine’s fascination with outsiders, whether any of the posters who objected to the work were black men or women or were all white. If, to hypothesise, the later is the case it does raise some interesting questions of the depictions of race and ethnicity that a scholar of the subject could have a field day with if they were shown the comments. It also proves if by accident or not, like I describe in the Trash Humpers review, that Harmony Korine has the gift of creating engaging debates over his filmography.

Mac and Plac (Harmony Korine)

A twenty plus minute extended scene from Trash Humpers involving two minor characters in the centre of attention. It is worth viewing if you thought the original film was of merit.

Warming By The Devil’s Fire (Charles Burnett, 2003)

From http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Warming_by_the_devils_fire.jpg

‘Part of The Blues documentary film series on PBS, Warming by the Devil’s Fire is written and directed by Charles Burnett and narrated by Carl Lumbly. This installment explores the tension between the gospel and the blues through the semi-autobiographic tale of a young boy (played by Nathaniel Lee Jr.) who is kidnapped by his blues-loving Uncle Buddy (Tommy Hicks) right before he’s about to be saved. Burnett investigates some of the blues women who defied the church by singing racy songs, like Lucille Bogan, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith. Includes archival performances by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Reverend Gary Davis, blues performers who managed to work within the church’s jurisdiction. Burnett also discusses his fascination with W.C. Handy and Blind Lemon Jefferson.’ – From MUBI

A delightful surprise in The Blues series. Using a story from the perspective of a boy in the 1950s, the director weaves the history of the blues in a way that feels extremely personal to himself, and the screenwriter, and avoids being restricted by its structure by having an almost fluid, stream-of-consciousness presentation to scenes. That the music and archive footage, shown to the viewer one-after-another in rapid succession, speaks for itself except some narration gives the film a far better quality than most of the other films in the series and a lot of documentaries.

The Skeleton Key (Iain Softley, 2005)

From http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/6/45746-large.jpg

‘A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.’ – From IMDB

With its Southern vibe, there was a hope that this horror film would improve on a second viewing. What happened instead was that, despite the charismatic lead Kate Hudson (and John Hurt, who is on the list of actors whose presence makes a film immediately better), it got worse. All it is a standard package of conventional modern horror tropes – jump scares, ominous music to make said scenes ‘scarier’ etc. – to try to frighten the viewer without a lot of thought and skill. Worse is the fact that, for all its moments discussing the practice of Hoodoo magic, it merely depicts it as another alien and ‘evil’ entity, one-dimensional and designed only to harm.

A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibPDxCEFJMVLeURZ04ke-wlK2S3BCzP72ySRj1Uc78PN4uJRK2zFZbxm48VIATaUsBP4mTNRiC7MRWio3uM9rN8b7OterJ57JKuVVqjYQGs7BN6TAw5SYwHkDGof_qIIEBpJPiLiP4KrM/s1600/a-single-man-poster.gif

‘It's November 30, 1962. Native Brit George Falconer, an English professor at a Los Angeles area college, is finding it difficult to cope with life. Jim, his personal partner of sixteen years, died in a car accident eight months earlier when he was visiting with family. Jim's family were not going to tell George of the death or accident let alone allow him to attend the funeral. This day, George has decided to get his affairs in order before he will commit suicide that evening. As he routinely and fastidiously prepares for the suicide and post suicide, George reminisces about his life with Jim. But George spends this day with various people, who see a man sadder than usual and who affect his own thoughts about what he is going to do...’ – From IMDB

A magnificent film. Controversy has surrounded the director Tom Ford, who he is and how he got the film made, but when he decided to make his debut he clearly had a personal reason to do so, and his desire to do this adaptation of a novel close to him shows just how much thought and a real emotional bond to it he had. With a long history of experience in the fashion industry, the film does look ‘glamorous’, but it is used in a way that is both beautiful and adds to the power of the film and its centre concept, of a man who decides one morning that it will be his last day alive, and how his view of the world alters, how everything is dull and lifeless until a moment of awe and happiness suddenly makes the world colourful, and how the littlest details suddenly have as much importance as large events (or of more importance, as the main character dismisses the Cold War and possible nuclear death as inevitable in one scene). Driving the film as well, with a strong supporting cast, is Colin Firth whose performance has made me view him in an entirely different light now, adding to the resonance and the moments of joy and deep sadness of the film’s core. A Single Man is an incredible gem. [As of October  2^nd 2010, it is the candidate for the best film of 2010 for me]