24fps: ANNIE HALL

Annie Hall. What a wonderfully simple unpretentious title. It’s hard to imagine a film getting a title like that now. It’s easy when the film is a biopic – I mean you know what to expect or rather who – but just who the heck is Annie Hall?

If this were a simple love story it wouldn’t stand so many repeated viewings, but here it is at the top of my personal list and a safe bet to pull off the shelf and view any time. It’s made easy by the episodic nature and relatively fast pace. Each scene has a different hook, a fresh gimmick, a new joke, sometimes sophisticated, sometimes banal, romantic, sexy, always funny and just full, rich. Rich in language and style without ever being flashy or just about the surface. A moment of perfect clarity for Woody. It’s original too. When Christopher Walken does his thing. When the subtitles reveal the thoughts of the characters. When Woody gets to prove his point in the cinema queue and then talks directly to camera he harks back to Laurel and Hardy but also sets the stage for the next thirty years or so of film-making. Of course he has long since lost the plot, but this will always be the film that stole the Oscar from Star Wars and rightly so. La-De-Da! La. Dee. Dah!

24fps: THE HAIRDRESSER’S HUSBAND

The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990), or should I say Le Mari de la Coiffeuse, has a soundtrack like no other. One that not only matches the visuals but informs them. They are inseparable. The whole thing adds up to not much more than a decent perfume. Unlike the characters within I wouldn’t suggest drinking too much – it’s a bit intense! A blend of light comedy, romantic fantasy and ultimately tragedy, it is intoxicating, sensuous, exotic, undemanding, but all the same breathtaking as well. A man dreams as a boy of growing up and marrying a hairdresser. His dream comes true, but like everything in life there is a price. You can’t get much simpler than that.

Heady stuff. Pure film. And it’ll make a dancer out of the most left footed amongst you.

24fps: BRAINDEAD

Braindead (1992) is also known by the title Dead/Alive which is so clumsy a title that I simply refuse to refer to it as that. When I first saw this I had it in mind that Peter Jackson would be a film-maker of some note, but what the hell happened? Lord of the bleedin’ Rings and King bleedin’ Kong! Where did it all go wrong? As least we fans of his earlier, funnier films still have something to remember him by. I find Braindead wildly funny throughout. I’ve always liked that convention whereby each scene serves no purpose other than to out do the preceding scene for craziness or in this case gross-ness. I’ve not seen it done this well since the old black and white Bilko TV shows. It starts so innocuously and then one thing leads to another before the most disgusting mother/son reunion of all time. It also reminds me in part of Henry V (yes Norman, Henry V) but in reverse – the scenes get less and less realistic until the appearance at the end of what is essentially a gargantuan puppet!

As an exercise in raw imagination I can think of no equal, unless … what was the name of that early Sam Raimi disaster? Crimewave! Must watch that again!

24fps: SIDEWAYS

Sideways (2004) is just a nice character comedy with just enough bite to keep me coming back for more. It’s the perfect kind of film for me. I want to made to think things out for myself. I don’t want to know where I’m going and I want rich character based conversations that are both funny and revealing. Don’t ever get drunk with me! I do like the complexity of a character that has enough good and bad for you to waiver in your like/dislike for them – aren’t most your friends like that? Real people? Wonderful one minute, ridiculous the next. Supportive and destructive. Well mine are both at different times.

I’d like to say the film itself is like a fine wine, but y’know I nothing about wine. What a philistine! I do know a good movie though and this is one of them. The director Alexander Payne is fast becoming the new Woody Allen, like when Woody used to be any good!

And that’s two movies (with The Specials) featuring Thomas Hayden Church – so at least he’s found his way onto my A-list anyway (I’ve not seen Spiderman 3 yet).

This was a quick Movie Night catch up! I can’t remember if this is early or late. That’s what working for yourself will do to a blog!

24fps: TOPSY TURVY

A day late – ah well. They say the devil is in the detail, but here’s a cinema treat that shows that God is right there in the detail too. Topsy Turvy (1999) is an astounding accomplishment for a director who is not known at all for this kind of period piece. Mike Leigh usually makes films that make you want to kill yourself. Films like Naked, Vera Drake, domestic British Drama and of course the excruciating painful comedy of his best known work the marvelous Abigail’s Party. This moves against everything that has gone before and yet retains the thing that is most crucial. Character. Good or bad Mike Leigh loves all his characters and it shows. Some hardly deserve our sympathy and yet Mike shows us all his characters in the round so that we are never allowed any easy hero/villain or good girl/bad girl answers.

Of course not everything in this true story is true, but no one understands the neccessary dividing line better better than Mike Leigh. The liberties he takes are in the service of the truth of the story, not to make heavy handed political points like many another ‘respected’ film maker might. Scene for intimate scene this is simply beautiful to watch. The nature of the plot such as it is also lends the film that unusual quality which manifests itself in my ability to watch it from wherever it starts. Ten minutes in, half an hour, even an hour in and I’ll still watch it through to the end transfixed. Next week Friday Night IS movie night once more.

24fps: ELECTION

Here’s a film that does hark back to the great independent American cinema of the 1970s like last week’s recommendation. In Election (1999) the irresistible force that is Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) comes up against the immovable object that is high school teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick). As Tracey claims at the beginning to fly in the face of destiny is futile and extremely foolish. Jim seems not to understand this sage advice and embarks on a course of action that must surely mean that Tracy Flick will NOT win the election for school president.

It’s a fairly sharp social satire that probably tries to touch base with with too many issues, but the characters at the core of the film just about makes it all hang together as entertainment. I kind of sympathise with the loathsome teacher who lets the bitterness and dissatisfaction of his own mess of a life out on others who have done him no real harm. Irritating as other people may be we can’t really invest our time in trying to destroy them – can we? To be honest I’m not sure what this film is all about -but heck I like it anyway. What do you think it means? Your turn to enlighten me.

But hey! Friday night is movie night I hear you cry! Well I’m off on a short break from blogging and I’ll be back at the end of next week with all the usual stuff. In the meantime I’ve scheduled two comic strips from days gone by to see you through the desperate hours of my absence. A page of each a day until I get back. Enjoy some rare adventures from two of the UK’s best remembered strips – starting tomorrow!

24fps: THE SPECIALS

No not the two-tone band, although I might go over that later, I’m talking about the best superhero movie ever made – The Specials (2000) with Rob Lowe and Thomas Hayden Church!

OK, I know this movie brings up mixed feelings over on IMDB, but this really hits the sweet spot for me. The sixth or seventh greatest superhero team in the world disbands after a disastrous action-figure launch party and the discovery of an extra-marital affair. I give up. This is impossible to describe, except to say that I give myself a coronary just thinking about the gags here. Some viewers may complain that you never get to see their powers demonstrated. I say that’s the point! If anything you get too much of a nod to their powers. All the comedy is in the dialogue and though it doesn’t always work completely I choke on the endless possibilities it throws up. The Mystery Men (1999) screwed up big by having everything this film didn’t including stars, budget, plot, a villain, special effects, visual gags. What it didn’t have was the script. Even though I love the wit in the writing even I have to admit it seems half finished, like they ran out of money halfway through … or maybe just gave up laughing too hard at their own jokes! This is not great art by any means, but sometimes you just need a movie you can pull off the shelf and know you’re gonna cough up a lung laughing – this is one of my certain standbys.

Together at last ... will there ever be a sequel?

Above and left to right back to front is Deadly Girl, Minute Man (that’s My-noot man, ok?), Mr Smart, US Bill, Amok, Nightbird, Alien Orphan and Power Chick. Of course not pictured are the great Strobe, Ms Indestructible and the Weevil. I know anyone can think up stupid hero names and powers (I do all the time) but here is a story that really connects on another level – with the character of Nightbird it examines why we all might like to be in a super team – no matter how crap.

I won’t spoil anything if you haven’t already seen it, but most people seem to misunderstand Nightbird’s actual powers. In the end, The Specials don’t explain her ‘extra, more-useful powers’ because she doesn’t have any – they are just being nice to her – they have faith in her … because they are her friends.

Anyway I’ll link to this resource – adherents – one of the wackiest sites on super types around. Who’d have thought anyone would be this interested? It made me think about one of my favourite films in a whole new way!