When tin foil suits look good…

(Warning: Spoiler Alert)

I just watched Be Kind Rewind and being nerdy and into nerdy films and people wearing bowls on their heads and tin foil suits, I have to say, I liked the film. But beyond the surface stuff its also a pretty good movie with gentrification at the core.

Good ol’ town of Passaic, NJ is apparently down on its luck, particularly the supposed neighborhood near the junk yard and the power plant. Somehow, a magnetizing mishap leads to remakes of beloved, and not so beloved, movies. I loved the montage of Mos Def (who I have yet to see in a movie I don’t like) and Jack Black doing the remake of Ghostbusters. Christmas tinsel as the proton streams? Brilliant. But then somehow these self made movies start to bring the neighborhood together. I get the premise of the area people liking being in the films and seeing themselves in them, but its still on a bit of shaky ground as to how in a few months they get to almost raising $60k. Interestingly though, even though the neighborhood comes together in the end all nice and heartwarmingly, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) still ends up agreeing to the contract to demolish his store and apartment to make room for condos, which is probably the most realistic part of the movie.

Despite the inherent faults, I’m still telling y’all to go see it. There are some great goofy laugh out loud moments, the montage scenes are high caliber montages (particularly if you consider yourself a movie buff), quirky characters, etc. But one of my favorite things is that the director, Michel Gondry, used actual Passaicans (?) as the majority of the extras as well as some of the minor characters. If you rent the dvd definitely watch the bonus material little film ‘Passaic Mosaic’. I actually wish there was a longer version of ‘Passaic Mosaic’ that Michel Gondry did as I think he would bring a compassionate eye to the subjects of gentrification and loss that many neighborhoods are currently dealing with.

So apparently all we’ve got to do is get together adorable misfits to make short films of real films and fake documentaries and we’re good to go in bringing communities together. Sigh, if only.

- suse

I’ll have Equal with my coffee, Mr. Hart

A few days ago I watched 9-to-5 with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, the always incredible Lily Tomlin, and lots of big hair.  Its a movie about getting back at the boss with some beer, pot and friendship thrown in, too.

See LOTS of big hair

Oh, and Colin Higgins who wrote Harold and Maude also wrote this one, so that’s a good precedent. I really did enjoy the movie. Fonda actually plays an endearing character in a non-annoying way, Parton feels like she’s just being herself (I heart Parton, so ‘being herself’ means good in my book), and Tomlin, well, she brings the awesomeness. But what I found interesting was at the end of the movie when the ladies take control of the office and start implementing their changes. This is the climax of the movie and some of the policies that you see go over their proverbial desk are job sharing/part-time work policies, providing a daycare center for children of employees and giving equal pay to all employees doing the same job (meaning all the ladies be getting raises). Let’s start the discussion with that last one…

James Todd Smith is the New LL Cool J

Or he’s the old LL Cool J, or LL Cool J has always been James Todd Smith. But whatever the case I am simply writing to express my appreciation for the Cool. As his appearance Wednesday night on Project Runway (sorry Suede, but you needed to go) showed us, the man is a fantastic looking fourty. Seriously. The man was born in 1968, or so the wiki tells me. I was a fan of his ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ video back in 1991 (special attention to the Unplugged version) and it seems he’s calling a comeback now with strategic appearances on popular shows. Come on, appearing as a hip-hop mogul called Ridikolus on 30 Rock? Superb. The already mentioned Project Runway guest judge appearance. And, the highest achievement of coolness possible, appearing on the new season of Sesame Street. So yeah, props to the Cool. And does anyone else remember the movie Toys? He played the military minded cousin of Robin Williams’ character? He was the son of the bad uncle who took over the toy company? Anyone? Well, I was a huge fan of that movie. I suppose that’s all I’ve got to say. Yay LL. Take it away Elmo…

- suse

And he shall be called Agador Spartacus!

Having just watched The Birdcage my love for Hank Azaria was utterly and truly reconfirmed. How can you not love a gay Guatemalan maid who wants to be the diva drag queen? I also have high respect for good actors who will prance around in a pink thong, wear fabulous jean cut-off short shorts and sing “She Works Hard For The Money” all in one movie.
I wish this clip lasted about ten seconds longer because one of Azaria’s best lines follows immediately after, “I do not wear shoes, they make me fall down.” Which leads to this…

So if you haven’t seen this movie (where have you been living?), do it. Nathan Lane is quintessentially the mothering gay man and is really fantastic. Robin Williams isn’t even bad, he actually inhabits his character better in this movie than in most others where he simply seems to be doing impersonations the whole time. And don’t miss Gene Hackman with some wonderful lines that are even funnier now that everyone knows who the Jeb Bushes are.

But back to Hank Azaria. I love him. You know you love him. Really, what would this world be like without him? No disastrously tanned and buff SCUBA instructor, no Tuesdays with Morrie (yes, I saw the tv film, yes I read the book, yes they are sappy, but it was Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria, I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist), no Bartok (both The Magnificent and the bat in Anastasia), no Apu, no Moe, no Comic Book Guy, no Lou, no Carl, no Chief Wiggum, essentially, you couldn’t have The Simpsons without Azaria. I would have given my left boob to see him in the original Broadway cast of Spamalot. He even made Helen Hunt cool.

Long live Agador Spartacus!

As the divine Lancelot in Spamalot

- suse

Well, it isn’t the Olympics…

I just finished watching The China Syndrome (which you can do at three in the afternoon when you are unemployed), I have to say, I liked it. What’s not to love? It has Jane Fonda as a good girl reporter dealing with being a woman in a man’s world, but she also owns a large turtle and a very large answering machine. It covers some good things around gender issues and the media and public safety. Following are my thoughts, which happen to be some real critiques and really just some observations.
Please bare with me through the randomness (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT)…

- Nice back story of greed and power overshadowing human safety.

- Isn’t totally anti-nuclear, which gives it an interesting perspective, focusing more on the stuff going on around the plant. If Jack Lemmon is for it, how can it be bad?

- I like how the China Syndrome refers to the nuclear material getting all the way through the Earth over to China. Guess that’s one more thing the Olympic athletes this year should be worried about.

- Some keen lines from Fonda’s top boss character guy, particularly the one about her ‘certainly not getting the job for her investigative skills’.

- Fonda’s shoes for the majority of the movie are AMAZING! Brown platform sandal things. Well done Jane, well done.

Cover of creepy book you should read.

- I love the scene with Lemmon and the Geiger Counter. It reminded me of one of the books I loved when I was in about 7th grade, Z for Zachariah. I had to call up the bookstore I used to work at to figure out the name, thanks Summers!! Everyone should read that book, no seriously, it is really good, pretty creepy, but really good.

- End of the movie shows how depending on who is talking, and which news station you may be watching, one event can be told in multiple ways.

- At about 1:04 check out the signs on the wall of the nuclear reactor stairwell. Payroll, Personnel, Conference Room and Ladies Lounge. I’m not quite sure what the prop/set guys were thinking when they did that.

- At about 1:10 in you can see my friend D. Monico driving his blue VW bug. At least that’s what I’m telling people.

- Check out the cop with the bowtie close to the end of the movie at the crash scene, super fantastic!

- Anyone who shoots Jack Lemmon is obviously a bad guy.

- There isn’t a soundtrack. I really like movies that don’t have soundtracks, well, when they are well done. Great use of switching between scenes of the reactor with tons of noise and the control room with complete silence. Amps up the tension.

- Also, Michael Douglas is in it. I think we need to make his name a tag now, don’t we?

Only 28 more movies to go on AFI’s 100 Years…100Thrills list, woo-hoo!