Nature Calls: My Abandonment

I am very picky about what I read. Sure, there are a lot of books with pretty covers calling out to me like sirens but I've been burned so many times (copies of half-read books with pretty covers stacking, spilling out our bookshelves), I don't go for that as much as I used to nowadays. Anonymous library copies will do. Having just abandoned Faulkner's impenetrable Sound and the Fury, I needed something to read. I do browse at the bookstores. It's a good pastime for me. And all the good books I've read over the years, it's usually happenstances: We were in Soho area on Friday night near McNally Jackson, a medium size, independent bookstore that has been a cultural island in the sea of expensive shops and tourists. I wasn't really looking for books, just wandering about, absorbing the balmy Spring weather, on the way to the train station.

Then I see this in there:

Intrigued by its cover, I flipped it over and read the description:

A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND HER FATHER LIVING IN FOREST PARK, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in nearby creek, store perishables at the water's edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight.
Inspired by a rue story and told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, Caroline, My Abandonment is a spellbinding journey into life at the margins and a stirring tale of survival and hope.

I'm sure it's many urbanites' fantasy (including mine) to live self-sufficiently in nature, away from civilization. And I know the city of Portland and the Pacific Northwest pretty well. The book starts out and fulfills that fairytale of ours faithfully. Then it gets darker- sort of McCarthy's The Road with a resourceful girl instead of a helpless boy. I didn't expect that sudden change of mood. Good thing is the author Rock doesn't play the helpless child card. It's about a girl finding herself through abandoning normal life.

I read the book in two days. It happened to me only once or twice, and I'm a very slow reader. I recommend the book to any good friend of mine. It will delight your senses and then disturb you. But don't despair, read on and the beautiful ending will reward you.

Virtual Friends

We Live in Public (2009) - Timoner

The doc starts with a video message of Josh Harris to his mother who's dying of pancreatic cancer, "hopefully we will see each other again on the other side. While you are there, say hello to all the relatives and our ancestors and whatever..."

Harris, one of the dotcom kids who made enormous amount of money in the 90s, invited documentary director Ondi Timoner in 1999 to document his latest venture, Quiet, a 24/7 surveillance camera wired bunker commune of young artistic types, under Manhattan. The candidates would sign their privacy away into this Orwellian experiment for the live world of internetz fame. It was a grandiose experiment and a true show of excess. It was Harris' vision of the future where people's lives are inseparable from this thing called world wide web.

For me who thinks Media Studies is the most worthless subject in the world and who can't stand exhibitionists, this doc didn't sound too good. But at the same time I had a strong desire to see this Josh Harris guy crash and burn at the end of the movie. Even though I've never heard of Harris, I remember attending one these ravish party/art shows thrown by 'one of the dotcom millionaires' in the late 90s.

Harris, a man-child who was admittedly brought up by television in a loveless family, made money in the silicon valley and created internet tv stations called Pseudo in the mid 90s. There is a footage showing Harris bragging to Bob Simon from 60 Minutes that it's a matter of time Pseudo would take over CBS. Mind you, internet was still far away from broadband.

After some freakish behavior (dressing up as a clown named Luvvy, his internet persona) that scared some investors off, he left Pseudo to his fellow shareholders and embarked on Quiet- his own world where he can be in charge in every aspect. It was the peak, the tail end of good times before the internet bubble burst. With their dial-up internet, the world got to see young people doing everything (except creating it seems)- eating, taking shower, fucking, shitting... and chat about their Quiet experiences. The commune was also equipped with a gun firing range and interrogation room. After a while, there are mental breakdowns, fights and it ends with Giuliani's police raid right after the new year 2000.

Harris then jumped on the idea for We Live in Public, a first internet couple living in public 24/7, with his girlfriend. What he didn't realize was that people lose interest fast, and subjecting himself to the experiment would backfire. In the end, he loses all his money, girlfriend and falls into obscurity, alone and lonely. Everything he did afterwords, comes across as stunts for that fifteen minutes of fame with his desperate desire to be loved still intact.

We Live in Public is a fascinating doc. One way or another, his vision came true, maybe not the exact way he predicted. I don't have to tell you the eminence of Facebook, blogs, youtube and even chat roulette in our lives. Hell, the reason we are here conversing is because we want some kind of validation on ourselves. The bottom line for coming to these sites is, we want to feel good about ourselves, ain't it?

A Train, Lower Manhattan

These sound projects are from last year. I need to pick it up again.

Wonton Garden: noodle with dumplings and roast pork

Chinatown, Manhattan

Thicker than Blood

Flounder (2010) - Park





The first time director Park Joon-bum's film is about three best friends on the verge of adulthood in the harbor city of Pusan. A country where friendship/brotherhood is thicker than blood, it is easy to see why Park concentrates on the trio - a baby faced college student in the eve of mandatory military service, a fish market worker studying to be a cop and a lazy Korean b-boy wannabe, and not much else. There are slight unfulfilled romances, poverty and family issues to test their friendships.

Flounder has a neo-realist feel with its squalid, down to earth settings. Their lives' ups and downs might not make big impressions but they are treated with warmth and care. Part of the reason it works is that Park is of the same age as these characters and knows what he's talking about. Even with all the melodrama, Flounder shows Park's potential to be a great filmmaker.

Woman Under the Influence

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) - Hancock




Jessica (Zohra Lampert) who just spent 6 months in NY institution, moves in to the idyllic Bishop manor near a lake in a small town with her supportive husband and their friend. They will be a farmer and she will get better in time. First, the small town folks are not only unfriendly but down right creepy with bandages on their wrists and on their necks. The trio then finds a strangely attractive redhead, Emily (Mariclaire Costello) living in their house. She warms everyone up and they agree on the beautiful vagabond staying with them indefinitely. While they are settling down, Jessica is seeing things and voices in her head mess up her quietude, make her question her sanity again.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a moody thriller that plays out as if Cassavetes tried his hands on the horror genre. It's a slow burn. Thank goodness the characters are not teenagers and there are no cheap scares. But with Lampert's great acting and eerie setting/cinematography/sound design, Let's Scare Jessica to Death is an unsettling little gem.

Tokyo Destroyed Again

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009) - Oreck
Rainbow Beetle at whopping $47!

More of an anthropological essay than straight-up documentary, Beetle Queen shows the latest craze in Japanese culture- bug collecting. With a typical Japanese woman's voice over(courteous yet sultry), we get to see and hear the urban landscapes, lights, cars, trains and people juxtaposed with close ups of bugs, mountains, forests, rice paddies etc. It shows how Japanese see the world in microcosm and simplicity through Shintoism and Zen Buddhism- haiku, zen rock garden, bonzai trees... Therefore, bugs are seen as logical connection btwn human and nature.

With sight and sound skillfully put together, Beetle Queen is a very hypnotic, seductive film. It's a delight to gaze upon the excited children's face as they marvel on these giant bugs and hear elders talking about their prized items with nostalgia. It reminds strongly of Chris Marker films but much more intimate and inviting.

Once You Go Black...

Black Snake Moan (2006) - Brewer


You've all seen the poster: half naked Christina Ricci chained up, kneeling before towering Sam Jackson in his dirty wife beater. When Black Snake Moan came out, I just rolled my eyes and didn't give it a second thought. Recently my musician friend played some songs from the film, sung by Sam Jackson hisself and man oh man, he can really bring it on. So why not, I'll bite that race bait, I thought.

First off, I'd be lying if I didn't enjoy seeing Ricci chained by the waist writhing about. She's got one fine bod. But behind all the trappings, Black Snake Moan is a tender love story with a capital t. Combining race, music, Jesus and booze in American South, Brewer succeeds in telling a sweet story of redemption and change without being coy.

Ricci plays Rae, a little nymphet with a fucked up childhood, who can't seem to close her legs up and Sam Jackson is Lazarus who, after getting dumped by his wife for his brother, sets out to fix Rae up in her wicked ways even if it means chaining her to the radiator which has been warming his house all these years. Lazarus, a retired blues musician, is far from a saint. But he wants to help the poor girl.

It's a Sam Jackson show. Lazarus is a very well developed, fully three dimensional character. Even though Rae comes off as a little too stereotypical whitetrash whore, still retains her humanism by Ricci's volatile/vulnerable performance. Justin Timberlake is also pretty good as an army vet/ messed up kid who gets to be taught a lesson by a big balding black man. Honestly, who wouldn't want shouting Sam Jackson to be their relationship counselor?

Beautiful Youth, Ugly Grown-ups

En Kärlekshistoria/A Swedish Love Story (1970) - Andersson
the IT moment

One can still see Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor, You, the Living)'s penchant for wry, absurd humor that he's known for in his later works, even back then. What's obvious is his adoration for youth and hatred for ugly life of grown-ups. People in the theater (including me) who were expecting more of a sweet love story, the film was disappointing that there weren't more on-screen time for the attractive young leads. But that's quite all right. I had some hearty laughs at the end. I craved for some crayfish and vodka after the screening.

Obliquely Bleak

With a Girl of Black Soil (2007) - Jeon







The film falls between Spirit of the Beehive and Morvern Callar. It takes place in a wintry small mining town in rural Korea. A miner finds out that he has a lung disease. He gets laid off. He has a retarded boy and a young girl to look after and the coal company is planning to demolish their shack. Talk about bleakness. The bright eyed girl is adorable. She tries to make the best out of the poverty stricken life. After all, she's still a child and doesn't really know anything other than her surroundings. Or does she?

Things get progressively worse. Her brother does stupid things to make life more difficult and papa drinks to forget his troubles. The girl has to resort to stealing ramen and soju from a local convenient store. Even with little hints here and there, I was still surprised by the powerful ending. There are many amazing scenes of tenderness with beautiful, natural photography in this independent feature by Jeon Soo-il. However objectionable her actions may seem, as the title suggests, we go through the experience with her without judgment.

Miserablists in the Caucasus

Anton Chekhov's The Duel (2009) - Koshashvili

A beautiful resort seaside town in the Caucasus had been a setting for many of Chekhov stories purgatory. The setting presented here, shot by Egoyan regular Paul Sarossy is nothing short of stunning: Clear blue sky and even clearer, darker sea. This costume drama concerns the miserable lives of Vanya Laevsky (Andrew Scott) and his mistress Nadia (Fiona Glascott). At first glance, young Vanya is an all around douchebag- always drunk, gambles, treats Nadia badly. But with a good reason- he's fallen out of love with Nadia and feels stuck. To make matters worse, he gets a letter from Moscow that Nadia's husband had just died. This could mean only one thing: a hasty loveless marriage. He conceals the fact from her as long as he can. Nadia on the other hand, busies herself with material things while cumulating debt and admirers alike (with her milky white complexion, showing off her sizable cleavage in her beautifully tailored dresses against stunning surroundings) all around town. Even in the small village away from 'civilization' they are bound by rules and customs of the society. Vanya tries to get away and asks for money from sympathetic Samoylenko, an old army doctor. The doc in turn tries to borrow money from Von Koren, a zoologist, man of science, who only has contempt for Vanya's very existence. Things escalate.

Like many of Chekhov's novels, however miserable and contemptible, every character is humanistic and redeemable. They just need to be shown what they are like even if it means pointing or being pointed at with a pistol.

I usually don't like sad sacks. But with Chekhov's bourgeois miserables, I always find myself drawn in and end up enjoying the hell out of them. Does this make me a masochist?

This adaptation is a great one. It has considerable humor and acting is top notch all around. Russian born Israeli director Dover Koshashvili handles the material with care and sets out the boundaries for the actors just right. I heard this theatrical run here is world premiere.I hope this will find a wider audience.

The World Upside Down

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) - Ward


Too bad I can't find better screenshots from this film. Part b & w and part color, Vincent Ward (Map of the Human Heart, What Dreams May Come)'s time-traveling journey of citizens of Cumberland in time of the Black Death is nothing short of stunning. Griffin, a boy who keeps having a vision of the future tells band of fellow miners the fantastic story of a city with a church on the far side of the earth. With his vision as guidance, they must dig the earth until they come out on the other side(which happens to be modern day New Zealand), find the church with a towering spire and put a Cumberland copper forged cross on top to stop the plague. The catch is, they have to do it all in one night before the next dawn. It's a childish story, borrowing elements from La Jetée and Vertigo. And it's beautiful to look at.

The Navigator, the second feature by Ward, already demonstrates the visionary filmmaker's penchant for grand, poetic visuals (his grand visions didn't bode well in Hollywood- fired from ill-fated Alien 3 project and after badly received Robin Williams schmaltz-fest What Dreams May Come, we never heard from him again). It would be nice if Criterion picks up this, Vigil and perhaps Map of the Human Heart. That would make me very happy.

Perfect Tempura Batter Recipe

Are you sick and tired of trying and failing at duplicating that crispy tempura they serve at your favorite Japanese restaurant? I finally have found the batter recipe that actually produces the bestest, crispiest, lightest tempura you will ever taste!

You will need:

Vegetables of your choice, sliced thinly
Shrimp peeled and deveined

1 cup flour
1 tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 cup cold seltzer water
1 tsp salt

4 cups canola oil

Mix flour, starch and salt and slowly add seltzer. Beat it until everything is mixed well. Dip desired vegetables and shrimp and fry immediately in high heat, 2-3 minutes. Drain on paper towel.

*The secret of the great tempura is pretty simple- freshness: you should prepare for it and serve it right away. The whole process should take only about 10-15 minutes.

For a dipping sauce, I usually dilute regular soy sauce with water 2:1 ratio with half a tea spoon of sugar thrown in.

Enjoy!

Dances with Wolves in NY

Wolfen (1981) - Wadleigh




A surprisingly elegant urban legend film. Drawing a parallel btwn gentrification and territorial war, Wolfen is a very well done atmospheric supernatural horror. A lot of great 80s actors- Al Finney (cop), Tom Noonan (zoologist), Gregory Hines (coroner), young Diane Venora(looking like a brunette nastassja kinski and not annoying for a change), and Edward James Olmos (sexy Native American construction worker) all take parts in the plot with a strong environmental message. It also has a lot of great visual details and gritty NY settings. The Bronx looked like a war zone back then, victim of years of neglect, drugs and landlords intentionally burning down tenement buildings for insurance money. And there are spectacular shots of Manhattan skyline from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. With lots of dusk and morning shots, New York looks all very empty and lonely. And how they managed to wrangle all these real wolves in Battery Park is anyone's guess. Pretty awesome movie.

The New World

Nuovomondo/Golden Door (2006) - Crialese



The Mancusos, a poor farmers from rural Sicily in the turn of the century decides to move to the new world, America, where the money trees grow, produces that grow as big as houses and milk rivers flow. They leave everything behind to make the arduous journey in steerage to the new world. Salvatore, the mustachioed oldest son is smitten by a well-dressed, mysterious redhead English woman Lucy(Charlotte Gainsbourg). Rumors fly among fellow voyagers- Lucy is a princess abandoned by her lover...

The Ellis Island procedural has rarely been portrayed in detail like this on film before- grueling physical exams, absurd psychological test, etc. A defiant Fortunado, the matriarch of the Mancusos shouts back in her heavy sicilian dialect "Who do you think you are, God? Judging me if I'm fit to enter the new world?" when asked to do a wooden block aptitude test.

Agnes Gordard's cinematography creates a dream-like atmosphere and the film has just enough whimsy but never delves into saccharin. A good movie with a gentle heart.

"Later, when you become older and wiser."

Lust och Fägring Stor/All Things Fair (1995) - Widerberg

It's 1943 Malmö. A good looking fifteen year old Stig (Johan Widerberg) from Stockholm has a crush on his comely English teacher Viola (Marika Lagercrantz). Just like any boy in his class, sex is the only thing in his mind. In class, he does all the small silly things for Viola to notice him and surprisingly, she does. Their sexual encounters go unchecked for a while, until Viola's door-to-door salesman husband Frank (Tomas von Brömssen) finds out their secret. But Frank is too beaten-up-by-life and drunk to really care. They become good friends, listening to Mahler together and laughing at Frank's wacky inventions. Viola's constant sexual demands become too much (and tad bit close to Piano Teacher territory) for naive but good-hearted Stig. Their roles become reversed: the old becomes childish and the young becomes wiser.

What's different about All Things Fair is it's completely devoid of sensationalism associated with its taboo subject. Unlike real life TV tabloid stories about teacher sexing up students for everyone to see, the affair stubbornly stays private. Stig is a kid with a good head on his shoulders. Jealous Viola fails him in her class as he grows out of love and falls for a neighborhood girl his age who's willing to give up her virginity. But he's wise enough to handle the situation himself- his mom (who is kept in the dark about the affair) asks him if there was anything he wanted to tell her. He replies with wry smile, "Later, when you become older and wiser."

Beautifully written and richly rewarding with all the WWII details- schoolyard Jew hating for their hairy thick schlongs, Frank crying because he can't listen to Mahler anymore because now he hears Hitler's speech at the same time ("Can't believe it's the same language!" he wails in disbelief), All Things Fair is a great gentle last film by Bo Widerberg.

Burden of Remembering

Code 46 (2003) - Winterbottom





In Code 46, people are divided by series of codes related to genetic modifying of the bodies. Traveling is highly restricted and regulated by health document called papalle, a highly prized item. William (Tim Robbins) a fraudulent papalle investigator with the help of empathy pills, flies to Shanghai to find a culprit in a slick papalle processing company. There he meets Maria (Samantha Morton), a worker and suspect in the fraud case. William instinctively knows she is guilty, but something in her draws him and they fall in love.

Code 46 is a rare film that succeeds in evoking the melancholia of remembering the past without much words. The mood Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, 9 Songs) creates with natural looking cinematography and music is just right reflecting the complicated globalized future world. The film is light and fluid. It floats above all the trappings of bad sci-fi. It also captures small very beautiful moments effortlessly- it's like looking at someone's intimate polaroid snapshots. And Morton is adorable. This is what Wong Kar-wai's overly stylized, voice-over driven, editing exercise, 2046, should've been. Code 46 achieves it in 90 minutes gracefully.

Hungry Hungary

Taxidermia (2006) - Pálfi

Visually audacious but ultimately hollow, Taxidermia tries to be high art when it's not. Spanning 3 generations of sex, gluttony, beastiality and over the top grossness, the film seems to give a satirical look at Hungarian history in search of their national identity.

It starts with a sex obsessed army Private in WWII era. A compulsive masturbator, Private Morosgoványi fantasizes about everything, even an open carcass of a pig. The next segment is a very round competitive eating champ who first meets his future cheating wife(also a competitive eating athlete) at an international eating competition while the enthusiastic Hungarian crowd cheer him on. These burly guys occasionally take breaks to walk over to the vomitorium during the competition. It's an absurd premise, reminiscent of Roy Andersson films. Then it moves to present: a skinny taxidermist who stuffs his blob of a dad and makes an art out of his body.

Its dazzling but heavy handed visual approach at appearing profound left me pretty bored, honestly. The themes and visual cues in each segment is sparse and don't quite gel together to make the film any more coherent.

Trailer

Wild Sound

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2008) - Wolf

I first heard Arthur Russell's music from some art school student's ipod. It sounded like 80s African pop music: beat heavy, fresh, accessible yet different. Then I asked her and she told me who it was. Russell died of AIDS in the early 90s, but left some very beautiful music behind. A Iowan farm boy with the voice of Nick Drake and the face of Denis Lavant, he got mixed up with the Beat crowd in San Fran and NY, became a staple at the Kitchen, NY's hub of avant-garde artists and musicians in the 70s. His weapon was cello. When everything around him was punk and disco, he produced music someone dubbed as 'Buddhist bubblegum pop'- part dance, part country, part avant. If he wasn't a perfectionist, obsessively changing his music all the time, he could've been as well-known as his contemporaries like Philip Glass and John Cage. Russell was always seeking and experimenting but it really showed in his voice and lyrics that, at heart, he was a gentle kid from the Plains.

Wolf does a great job showcasing Russell's music using an archival footage, interviews and some lyrical images shot by Jody Lee Lipes. And it's good to see his don't-know-him-but-love-him-all-the-same parents. Good to know that there are some decent folks out there.


Arm Around You
Home Away from Home

Small (almost) Vegetarian Pies

Made them today because I saw our vegetarian friend Menshahat making them the other day and was inspired. It's a little time consuming but the end results are real worth it. Thank you Mensha.

For the filling you will need:

1 bunch kale middle stems removed and coarsely chopped
2 portabella mushroom diced
1 Medium onion diced
5-6 cloves garlic chopped
10 fingerling carrots chopped
a dozen asparagus chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ginger powder
3-4 tbsp Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

*1/2 cup fresh mozzarella cheese cut in cubes, if you desire

For the pie crust:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter or 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup cold water

In a deep pot drizzle olive oil, throw in vegetables with spices, cook it in high heat until the vegetables' volume goes down in half. Set aside.

Preheat oven 390F degrees.

Divide the pie dough in two. Make them into balls. On a lightly floured flat surface, roll them out with a rolling pin, one at a time to thin sheets. Cut the dough into round discs that could fit in the large 12-muffin pan. You have to make at least 24 discs (one for the bottom and one for the top).

Grease the muffin pan with butter or vegetable shortening. Lay down the pie crust discs at the bottom. If they are too small for the muffin pan, you might have to stretch them out individually with the rolling pin. Place vegetable mixture in twelve muffin holes with crust at the bottom. Put mozzarella cubes on top if desired. Cover them with the other set of pastry crust discs. Make sure the bottom and top pastry crust meet at the edge so you can seal them. Brush butter or vegetable shortening on top. Make sure you fork some vent holes on the tops of your little pies.

Bake it in oven for 35-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Then cover the pan with a cutting board and put the pan upside down. The pies should come out easily.

Serves 3-4 people, either as an appetizer or meal. Enjoy.

Art Supply Stores and the Cure

I was at a Dick Blick art supply store on Bond Street the other day and noticed the music playing there. It was the Cure's In Between Days. Then it occurred to me that they were playing the same music when I was in school, in the early nineties. The music never changes much in art supply stores. It's either the Cure or the Smiths. How could that be? There have been art stores long before the Cure or the Smiths ever existed. What did they listen to back then? James Taylor?

Good song by the way:

Art as Commodity: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) - Banksy

Banksy, an elusive underground British artist who's known for the stunts he pulled at various museums (sneaking in his incongruous, ironic art and place them in between classics) and his witty stencils and sculptures on the streets all over the world, is credited as the film's director here and also in it with his face forever under the hood and his voice distorted for legal issues. But the film belongs to a little fat Frenchman with mutton chops named Thierry Guertta, aka. Mr. Brainwash.

Guertta was an accidental tourist to the scene. Following his cousin known as Invader (he started putting up the Space Invader mosaics all over Paris in the late 90s) with a video camera forever attached to his hand, Guertta rides the tide of this DIY guerrila movement with Shepard Fairey (whom he runs into at a LA Kinkos making gigantic copies of his now-famous Obey Giant) and slew of other artists including, Neckface, Swoon and others in other cities. Guertta was a fanboy of sort, documenting all their activities in thousands and thousands of videotapes. His white whale was Banksy. There is a funny bit in the Guertta interview where he becomes speechless when he recalls the first time he meets the notoriously reclusive artist. They become a good friend after Guertta being a Banksy's posse during the artist's stunt in Disneyland with his Guantanamo inspired orange-jumpsuit-and-black-hooded blown up doll on the anniversary of 9-11.

The origination of the doc in itself is an interesting story (if everything told here indeed is true): Encouraged by Banksy, Guertta makes a street art documentary from his extensive footage- which the artist later describes as utter shit made by a madman with a very short attention span (we get to see some of the unwatchable collage of random images). After that, he makes Guertta leave all his tapes with him with the intentions of making this doc and advise him to concentrate in his own street art activities. Guertta follows his idol's advice to the heart.

Having studied studio art for three years in school and been married to an artist with a considerable talent and dedication, I've always had strong opinions about what is considered art. When street art took off last ten years or so, peaked with Shepard Fairey's Hope poster for the Obama 08' campaign, I was thoroughly disgusted by its rampant commercialization.

Personally I like art that shows the signs of artistry- labor, thoughts, something created by artist's own hands. The biggest problem I had with Shepard Fairey is that he doesn't have any skills nor wits other than tracing the original imagery and putting some color over it (he has a clothing line and is getting sued by an AP reporter who took that Obama picture for copyright infringement). I love the work by Swoon, whose intricate, beautiful wheat pasted paper-cuts all over NY show she can really paint and draw well.
*On a side note, I recognized her when I saw her on the screen, she is that very attractive waitress at a now-defunct Latin bistro in Brooklyn I frequented. Regrettably- I was just one of those yuppie customers for her. I should've said hello had I known!

Banksy does two things right in this doc: It is a very well made, good archival material for street art movement, with a lot of humor: the guerrilla style, tag-and-run aesthetic brings a lot of funny, entertaining moments.
It also questions the nature of art and art as commodity- Guertta, now Mr. Brainwash, tries to become an 'artist over night' (in his own words) by having a solo show titled, Life is Beautiful, in grand scale, taking over a huge space in LA, churning out one bad street-art-meets-pop-art print after another, then promotes the hell out of it and makes millions (and the whole process is hilarious).

Banksy himself is not immune to the commodification of street art. He is the one who had a grand art show in LA (featuring a painted elephant no less) that attracted Hollywood's who's who and made street art the toss of the art auction houses over night. Whether Exit Through the Gift Shop is one of his elaborate joke or not, Banksy raises some interesting questions about the legitimacy of being an artist by presenting his own creation (figuratively or otherwise), Mr. Brainwash.

*Shepard Fairey criticism by Mark Vallen for anyone interested.

Fraternal Instincts: 10:30 P.M. Summer

10:30 P.M. Summer (1966) - Dassin

Atmospheric, fast paced film starring Melina Mercurie(Dassin's Anna Karina) as an aging alcoholic Maria, on vacation with her husband Paul (Peter Finch) and young, radiant friend Claire (scrumptious Romy Schneider). Through the dialog we learn that it was suspicious Maria's idea to bring Claire along because she wants to witness her husband's affair with Claire first hand. They arrive in a rural town in Spain en route to Madrid. There is a terrible storm and the whole town is in uproar because there has been a double murder- the film starts in rain, where a young Spaniard witnesses his wife and her lover in the heat of the moment and he shoots them both. Maria feels strange fraternity with the young man. He is on the roof, hiding! She has to help the fugitive!

10:30's strength is in its visuals- with a lot of overhead tracking shots and zoom-ins, the striking color photography and the crazy tango bar scene are quite beautiful and energetic. Arid vista of rural Spain and streets are stunningly photographed and resemble Antonioni's work. Great first half, but with the Marguerite Duras's slight script on brittle relationship, suggesting the affair maybe be all in Maria's head(with an arty fantasy/dream sequence), the film starts to run out of steam. The Antonioni-esque ending is neither resonating nor fitting with the rest of the film.

Alaska is for Lost Souls: Limbo

Limbo (1999) - John Sayles

Limbo Starts out like a typical John Sayles (Matewan, Lone Star) lesson in social anthropology. This time it's in Alaska: there are two types of people- ones who wear four thousand dollars worth of Gore-Tex and treat the 49th State like a theme park and there are the rest- working class sad sacks at a local tavern, drinking and lamenting. Then it turns into a lost in the great outdoors movie without abiding to any of the genre stereotype. It's a marvel to observe three people trapped both physically and figuratively in dread called life where the only outlet just might be death.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Donna) and David Strathairn (Joe) are both marvelous as lonely middle aged people who made some bad choices in their past and now only live for a couple of moments of bliss- on stage and on a fishing boat. Donna's morbid teenage daughter Noelle connects with Joe's earnest, guileless observations on their stranded-on-a-deserted-island situation. What can I say? Not a single false note in its two hour running time, Limbo is a beautifully written film about purgatory(with an end) that is effortlessly carried out with much affection and melancholy.

Hollywood Apocalypse: The Day of the Locust

The Day of the Locust (1975) - Schlesinger






Waldo Salt (the blacklisted writer of Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home)'s script based on Nathaniel West book from 1939 is a biting satire on Los Angeles. Sleazy faced Tod Hacket (William Atherton) is a lowly set artist at the Paramount studio art dept. He falls in love with his neighbor, a two-bit blond actress Faye (amazing Karen Black in her best role) who lives with her drunk vaudevillian father (Burgess Meredith, showcasing some numbers that are truly cringe worthy). But Faye chooses to live with a mild mannered accountant named, ahem, Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland playing against type here) 'because he doesn't want anything from me'. The human tragicomedy ensues. Ah, the lovely losers, chasing their hollow dreams in the dream factory.

There are so many great moments throughout- a hanky panky Hollywood party, sexually charged tequila drinking contest, theatrical evangelist stage show, grand Waterloo set disaster, bloody cockfights, and the riot and mayhem at the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's Buccaneers. The film's visually spectacular- feigning that old soft Hollywood look to the maximum exaggeration, matching its ambitious and crazy script. Its influence on many other films- Magnolia, Short Cuts, Mulholland Dr., etc. are evident. Schlesinger was much edgier filmmaker than Altman ever was.