Underrated movie to rent: World's Greatest Dad

Okay, 80s comedy club fans: who remembers Bobcat Goldthwait? The funny looking guy with the funny sounding voice? Well, he's a director now, apparently he's been behind the camera for episodes of some live television as well as having directed a few of his own small features. His latest film was released on video-on-demand and then had a limited theatrical run in August 2009. "World's Greatest Dad," which he wrote and directed, is available on Netflix instant play (my very favorite and a great way to try out movies and TV you wouldn't normally waste time renting).

The movie stars Robin Williams as Lance, a private school poetry teacher who is also a failed writer. His son Kyle is that teen guy you see who's always screwing up. No one likes him and he's a jerk to everyone, including his dad and his best friend. He has an unhealthy obsession with porn and women and sex and in particular, auto-erotic asphyxiation - I think you can see where this is going. Lance has a pretty young girlfriend (a fair weather girlfriend who is a fellow teacher and won't go public with their relationship) but in most respects, allows himself to be walked on by her and by other teachers and by Kyle. Yes, he's a sad sack but Williams plays him right on the edge, not overblown in any way, never over-the-top Patch Adamsish.

When Kyle dies in an "awkward" accident, Lance writes a suicide note for him to spare him any embarrassment about the way he died. The letter is leaked to the school paper and suddenly, Kyle (and Lance) become heroes, representing all the downtrodden and invisible students. Lance decides to go further with the ruse and even constructs a journal containing all of Kyle's pithy thoughts and philosophies. The book is a huge success and propels Lance into the spotlight.

The only problem is, the one person who knew the real Kyle, his friend Andrew, doesn't believe any of it. He is the only thorn in all of this for Lance and the one who eventually brings Lance to his senses.

I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who loved "Rushmore," "Donnie Darko" (Richard Kelly is a producer and his presence is definitely felt) or even "Heathers." The movie hits the exact right tone - not too subtle or over-the-top. After all, beneath everything and despite the big laughs, this is about a man whose son dies and no matter how awful the kid was, he did love him. Robin Williams is fantastic as are the rest of the cast members. I can't believe I am now a huge Bobcat Goldthwait fan. Awesome.

2-Fer Halloween

I love fall. I love everything about it: the weather, the temperature, the quality of the light in the afternoon. In LA, I love how it's warm during the day and chilly at night. In New England, I love the crisp leaves and morning frost.

And in both places, I love breaking out the apple pie recipe and whipping up a pie or two for friends and my Ninja Webmaster. It's about the only decent thing I can cook that people actually ask me the recipe for (it's surprisingly easy and just about the best pie recipe out there - just make sure you pick the right apples!).

But more than any of that, I love the feel of Halloween in the air. I'm not a Halloween fan per se. I mean, I don't dress up or host parties. I'm not a fan of candy or chocolate bars or even those sticky caramel-covered apples and frankly, no child has ever rung our doorbell either here or in Brooklyn. But I like Halloween on other people.

And I like scary movies. I'm not crazy about gore in my movies, unless it's in something like "Shaun of the Dead," which is one of the most brilliant zombie movies of all time. But I do appreciate a well-told horror movie. And here are two I highly recommend:

"Shutter" - no, not the American remake. Get the original Thai version. This filmmaker must have been studying the J-horror trend of movies like "The Ring" and "The Grudge" where dead people appear in ghastly pale fashion with long, stringy (and usually wet) hair. A couple hits a woman in the road and then leaves the scene. Soon after, her image appears in the guy's photographs and she herself pops up out of nowhere - in the dark room, in a lab room...just when you think they've settled her spirit and the movie has to be over, it goes one - no, two - steps farther. The last image is freakin' brilliant.

[Watch this one with Sliver-Vision.]

"Trick R Treat" - you know those movies that go to video after a brief limited theatrical run? 99.99% of them usually suck. Not this one. Great acting (what a cast! Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin and more), great directing, great cinematography, great editing. Very well-written and tightly constructed, it's a collection of intertwined stories told about Halloween night: the guy who seems nice but poisons kids, the girl who appears innocent yet may be a creepy supernatural being, a group of kids playing a trick on a weaker girl...all the cliche Halloween tales are nicely tweaked. Not gory but definitely creepy-scary and beware, a few kids meet their end so if that bothers you, well, skip this one. But in general, good guys get their revenge.

How I Know the End of Civilization is Near

Clever title. Hilarious movie.

Have you all seen the movie, Idiocracy, written and directed by the amazingly talented Mike Judge? He is the brilliance behind "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill" and his first live action film, the underrated Office Space. If you haven't seen Idiocracy, put it on your Netflix queue right this very second! I'll wait.

Done?

Okay. In Judge's film, society has devolved to the point of idiocy, with ex-wrestlers running the country and Costco awarding law degrees. Product placement is everywhere, on every item of clothing and as part of people's own names. It's a hilarious and scary movie.

There is a film within the film called, appropriately-enough, "Ass." It is simply a guy's bare butt on the silver screen for 2 hours. It's wildly popular and has even won Academy Awards. You would think such a thing is ludicrous, yes? Well, look no further than the upcoming film, The Hangover. It's about...a hangover. Let's see: bachelor party in Vegas. Drunken adventures. Yup, that's about it.

Bad title. Funny movie?

I'm sure it's a very funny film. Saw the trailer before the phenomenal Star Trek. Looks like a great cast. But couldn't the filmmakers try a little harder to be clever with the title at least? I mean, the concept is hardly revolutionary (did I mention drunken bachelor party adventures in Vegas?) and the story has been told since the days of Shakespeare. So couldn't anyone in the marketing department at Warner Bros. come up with something, um, more original? And this is not the first time I have thought this: Knocked Up was just as generic and simplistic, perfect for where our society is headed.

Don't bother thinking; we'll do that for you. You people just save your tiny shrinking brains for more important things, like which overpriced American car to buy and how many iPods you own.

I foresee The Hangover 2 in the future...why, what do you know? It's already scheduled for a 2011 release. Pure awesome.

4 Underrated Animated Films

I never realized I was such a fan of animation until someone asked me recently to name some of my favorite movies and I said "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Spirited Away" and "Lilo and Stitch" and "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc." and then I was all...hey, I guess I really do love big-screen cartoons.

Those are all very well-known films so here are a few you may not have seen or have forgotten about. If so, put them on your queue
!

1. Meet the Robinsons - based on a novel by William Joyce, it's the story of a boy in an orphanage waiting to be adopted who is whisked to the future where he meets his family. He uses the time machine to go back to the day when his mother leaves him on the doorstep of the orphanage, intending to confront her. This was such a sweet film with some unexpected emotional moments. I think the movie got lost in the shuffle but it's worth a rental.

2. Iron Giant - with the voices of Vin Diesel and Jennifer Aniston and directed by Brad Bird who did the more successful The Incredibles. This was also based on a novel by Ted Hughes (sense a pattern with the best films?) and is the story of a boy who finds an alien who has fallen to earth. The boy teaches him about Superman, another alien who comes to earth and who champions humans. Like Superman, the Giant eventually sacrifices himself to save the boy and his town. I loved this movie when it came out although it was not a commercial success. Bird's later work was more popular but I think this movie has more heart than The Incredibles and the 2-D animation is gorgeous.


3. Kung Fu Panda - an amazing voice cast, rollicking storyline, with terrific action sequences and beautiful animation. I think this film got lost last year when Wall-E came out. As much as I loved Wall-E (it made me cry) I believe this movie has more replay value. The 2-D dream sequences are graphic-novel quality and the camerawork on the 3-D stuff is simply amazing. And yes, the story is incredibly cute with not one scene that lags. Rent it.

4. The Animatrix - a collection of short animated films that take place in world of The Matrix. Each gives us a little more insight into the strange Matrix universe with a different director and different set of characters and with a completely unique style of animation. Beautiful and quirky.

Judging a Book by Its Cover

C'mon, we all do it. We see a book or a DVD on the shelf and we read the jacket flap or the summary on the back of the case and we think, "Been there, done that." Or worse, "Been there, done that, hated it."

You don't think you do? All right, I'll go first:

A few months ago, I received a galley copy of a novel called "The Book of Unholy Mischief" by Elle Newmark. The jacket copy made the story about a chef's apprentice in Renaissance Venice who gets caught up in a murder mystery sound, in a word, lame. I was convinced the story would be overwritten, the dialogue stilted, the plot contrived and so it sat on my TBR pile for weeks without me even taking a peek at it. When I finally did - by accident, I think - I was intrigued from the very first chapter. It's a fantastic novel and I have since loaned my copy out twice and recommended it to others.

The same is very true of DVDs: we use Netflix a lot and often, the service will try to recommend movies for us based on which movies we have previously rated highly. Using a complex formula involving lots of numbers and some pixie dust, Netflix will tell us what film we should see next and how much it thinks we will like it.

Example: "Tropic Thunder," the comedy starring Robert Downey Jr. , Jack Black and Ben Stiller. We like all of these actors and Netflix told us we would love their new movie. We were skeptical and thought we would hate it; after all, lots of groups had protested it for many reasons and it seemed sort of weird: Robert Downey Jr. in blackface? How can that not be racist?

And we loved it. Unlike many comedies, it had no lapses in the joke department, no sudden sweetness producers throw in to make the movie perfect for a couple on a date. This was just a very funny parody on all things Hollywood.

I mention these examples because recently, the book blogger Thao Tran reviewed my book, LOVE, MEG on her blog, Serene Hours right here. She very honestly says she didn't think she'd like it - and in an email to me, she told me she had won the book in a contest but had, in fact, been hoping to win my other book, ALL ABOUT VEE. But a free book is a free book, right? (LOL - my words not hers...)

Thao thought the story would be cliche, the characters uninteresting- she believed she had seen this before in other books so she really wasn't expecting to like it. She also wasn't crazy about the cover - it gave her an impression of the story being something she probably wouldn't like. Now, with all of that going against it, how can my little book possibly succeed?

But it did! When Thao read it, she began to enjoy it and you can read for yourself her review and how the book changed her mind. I love hearing this! It suddenly makes a 3 or 4 star review feel like 5 stars! While I would love to hear from a reader that she thought she'd like my book and then loved it instead, I will take the surprised reader too. I would so much rather surprise someone than disappoint them.

And this is not the first time this has happened in a review. Many, many times I read in reviews of my books, particularly ALL ABOUT VEE, that the reader thought she would be bored and was instead shocked at how much she liked the book. In these instances, I definitely want reviewers to say that: tell me, tell potential readers your honest opinion, let us know you thought you'd hate something but instead loved it. That will give other readers an incentive to give my books - and other books they thought they wouldn't like - a shot.

Thanks, Thao, for encouraging others to give MEG a chance.

Underrated Movies: 2 From Scorsese

Taking a brief departure from my fascination with all things of a 4 nature, I remind you of two excellent films from the brilliant director Martin Scorsese who has somehow become primarily associated with mafia/gang films when, in fact, he has a wide range of films under his belt, including a musical with Robert DeNiro ("New York, New York")!

1. After Hours (1985) - a dark comedy about a guy (Griffin Dunne) who decides to get out of his rut and take a walk on the wild side of Soho and the Lower East Side of Manhattan and every single thing that could go wrong, does in the course of one very long night. Amazing cast: Rosanna Arquette, Catherine O'Hara, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Cheech and Chong...and all of them turn against him.2. King of Comedy (1983) - another dark comedy starring Robert DeNiro as Rupert Pupkin, a guy who wants to be a stand-up comic and who becomes obsessed with Jerry Lewis, who is - believe it or not - awesome in this movie as a talk show host/comedian a la Johnny Carson. Sandra Bernhard is DeNiro's female compadre who assists him in kidnapping Jerry Lewis. Pupkin's demand? A top spot on Lewis' show.

Anyone who says Scorsese is too serious or too over-the-top hasn't seen these films. Marty totally has a sense of humor, albeit a dark one with an edge to it. I love it. No cheese in sight.

Netflix these for a good time.

Stardust

This is my new favorite movie. I definitely want to own a copy. Amazing cast (Robert DeNiro, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer), great effects, and the story is just wonderful. Based on a Neil Gaiman graphic novel, it's a fairy tale for adults (as Gaiman described it in an interview). A young man, Tristan, is in love with Victoria, a selfish young woman who asks him to retrieve a fallen star for her as proof of his love for her. To get the star, he must go to a foreign, enchanted land.

Claire Danes is the luminous star. And not just Tristan is after her. She also has a ruby necklace the king's son wants and a heart that can provide eternal life for a witch (Pfeiffer) and her sisters.

It's romantic and funny with action but it's not a romantic comedy. The director, Matthew Vaughn who was also a co-writer of the script with Jane Goldman, knows exactly what he's doing. He lets the actors do what they need to but reigns them in before they go over the top. This is a "Princess Bride" for a new generation. It's what Terry Gilliam should have directed instead of "The Brothers Grimm."

I think the marketing team at Paramount didn't know what to do with this one. Many graphic novels reach a lot of demographics at once - they don't have the sorts of constraints lots of novels and movies do - because so many different kinds of people can read and appreciate them for very different reasons. So where do you position this film? Not a true romance or comedy or action or fantasy. Even the star power is playing against type: DeNiro as a fey pirate and Pfeiffer as an old evil crone.

I hope it gets a new life on DVD and becomes as popular as "Princess Bride" (I actually prefer "Stardust" but then I am biased toward anything that stars Michelle Pfeiffer).

Cheers for the Underrated

Sometimes I feel like I am completely out of touch with the rest of the world, that I like things no one else seems to like, that I'm writing things no one else seems to want to read. And I don't know why that is. I grew up in a very conventional nuclear family in leafy suburbs and attended a decent public school and excellent colleges. It's not like I went to Hampshire or anything.

And yet, I'm not a fan of super-quirky things that get their own websites and booths at Comic-Con. Some of those totally off-the-wall books and movies and characters have really hardcore fans that post fanfic and dress in costume when they go out. And I can't say I have any interests in those kinds of things.

When I see a movie or read a book that everyone thinks is fantastic, I really want to like it too. I want to be a part of the general zeitgeist and expound on the virtues of Dan Brown and Tom Cruise. But much of the time, I don't get it. This is especially true of music, which I freely admit I know nothing about and probably won't ever. Why does Matchbox 20 get a bad rap? Why do people diss Alanis Morrissette? Is it wrong to like them? Why?

I guess my favorite sorts of things are not necessarily the under-liked but the underappreciated, those books and TV and movies that may eventually become popular but are easily dismissed among their contemporaries. I wonder if other people feel this way too.

From the Queue

A little something to discuss while I'm traveling today...

Remember when you were a kid and the mail was a daily event you looked forward to? Maybe a card with cash from Grandma would arrive or a new issue of "Sports Illustrated" would be there. Then you got older and the mailbox held bills and past due notices and jury summons. Who wanted to get the mail then? I still dread it. The fun stuff comes in email; the misery via USPS.

Ah Netflix, my old friend. It makes going to the mailbox fun again.



This weekend we saw a great doc: "My Kid Could Paint That" about Marla Olmsted the 4 year old art prodigy whose father was subtly accused of painting for her by a 60 Minutes producer. It's very well-balanced, neither pro or con and allows you to make your own decision.



We also saw "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Not so golden for the big E. Although I love Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen, I felt like this saga of Elizabeth's life was depressing all around and ther was very little joy in it. In the previous movie, she at least had love even if she had to give it up. And btw, how much did Joseph Fiennes (from E 1) and Clive Owen (from E 2) look alike?

Southland Tales

This movie, from the director of “Donnie Darko,” one of my all-time favorite movies, was not seen by anyone I know. In fact, no one I know saw “Donnie Darko,” so I guess I shouldn’t have expected much. The movie was trashed by critics when it came out: too long, too self-indulgent, too confusing, etc. It is all of those things – and brilliant.

The cast was amazing: I loved how Richard Kelly played everyone against type (Cheri Oteri was a tough chick with a powerful uppercut, Mandy Moore was a total witch married to Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Geller played a porn queen with a talk show who has dreams of running her own business empire, and Justin Timberlake (nearly unrecognizable to me!) was a turret gunner in the military –among many more).

Narrated by Justin Timberlake, the film has an otherworldly feel – a sort-of future, rooted firmly in our current terrorist-obsessed culture. There is a stifling police presence, a broadcast landscape filled with product placement, politicos being blackmailed by porn stars, and a neo-Marxist underground intent on disrupting the next election. It all takes place in California’s “southland,” Los Angeles and its vicinity. If you live around here, you’ll recognize many of the locations. It’s quintessential LA.

As in “Darko,” the world in “Tales” is facing an apocalypse which would make you think Kelly is a complete pessimist, and yet the world does indeed get saved – by one person who must sacrifice himself for the greater good. In “Darko,” it was Jake Gyllenhaal’s character and in “Tales,” it’s Seann William Scott who was part of a military experiment involving Dwayne Johnson. I would like to believe this speaks to a more sentimental philosophy on Kelly’s part, that good can triumph but yes, there will be blood.

As for charges this movie was long, I think it probably could have been trimmed but there are a ton of characters and their stories take a while to wrap up. Also, I wonder if Kelly suffers from the same problem I do when I write: I have such a great time setting everything up and introducing characters and plots and intertwining them, that the story ends up being twice as long as I had intended. In my case, I always cut back because I’m not famous. But in Kelly’s case, perhaps his success with his first movie gave him license to be a little more indulgent with his second. Personally, I don’t care: I thought every single scene was great. Humor, pathos, surprise, confusion…

…oh yes, confusion. Look, it’s like a Lynch film…you sort of have to let it wash over you. Don’t try too hard to figure it out. Get the rhythm of the characters, watch them interact, enjoy. It all works out in some fashion and you absolutely cannot figure it out from the beginning as you do with many other movies.

I loved this movie. I have to put Richard Kelly on my list of people I would like to meet.

Doc Doc Doc Goose

This week Netflix delivered 3 documentaries from our queue: "Confessions of a Superhero," "The End of Suburbia," and "Crazy Love." We've already watched the first 2, both of which I recommend.

"Superhero" tells the story of 4 of the people who play "characters" on Hollywood Boulevard near the Hollywood and Highland complex. They dress up as famous movie or television characters (in this case, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the Hulk) and pose with tourists for pictures. They work on tips but are not allowed to solicit. They can only suggest to people that they tip them. On a good day, they might make as much as $150 bucks an hour; on a not-so-good day, maybe just one buck.

Of the 4 actors interviewed, Superman really stands out: a former meth addict, he claims to be the son of the late Sandy Dennis although her family members say they never knew this guy or even that she was pregnant. He is obsessed with Superman! His small apartment, which he shares with his now-wife (they were married during the film), is crammed with all things Super.

Wonder Woman was also a sweet girl from the south who wanted to be an actress. She came out here, got married to a guy she knew for 2 weeks, and dressed up as WW while she was trying to audition. She's a very pretty girl and I hope this movie gets her some notice for roles. She and her husband were breaking up at the end of the film but she seemed to take strength from that.

Batman, also married, had/has an anger problem and also seems to watch a LOT of movies. Much of his past appears to be appropriated from action movies, gangster films, and George Clooney, whom he sort of resembles. His own wife says she only believes 50 percent of what he says.

And then there's the Hulk, a guy who was homeless for 4 years but still managed to take auditions (reminded me of the Will Smith movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness"). He's getting roles now in small movies but best of all, he has his own apartment and seems to have a bright future.

HH was worried the movie would make him feel sad, that these actors would have really depressing stories but in truth, they are not so different from anyone else. They all seem to have love in their lives and the support of others and even if a couple might be slightly delusional, they aren't dragging anyone else down with them.

A definite recommend.

The Nines

This was a small, independently made film with a great cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy and Hope Davis. Each of them plays three different roles in the film, which was written and directed by John August, a big-time screenwriter better known for his work with Tim Burton. And watching this, you can see how he and Burton would have gotten along, although August is far more existential in his approach to his own material than he is with Burton’s.

The story, as best I can sum up, concerns a guy played by Reynolds, who is first an actor who goes crazy and ends up under house arrest where he meets McCarthy, a publicist, and Davis, a neighbor. Next he is a TV writer with a pilot and McCarthy plays herself while Davis is a TV executive helping Reynolds with his show. And third, he is the main character of the show he was writing, McCarthy is the character she was playing in the show he wrote, and Davis is a random hippie chick he meets in the woods.

I cannot adequately describe this movie except to say that all three storylines overlap and intertwine and you will recognize bits and pieces from each. It’s very well-written, expertly acted and directed, and leaves you feeling uplifted and inspired. I really enjoyed this movie; it’s one of the few I have seen recently that has stayed with me and made me think. HH and I disagreed on the ending but now that I have spent some time away from it, I think he was right.

The best of all possible worlds. You wish that someone would love you enough to make that happen for you.

Underrated and Overlooked

It seems to me many of the things – movies, actors, books, television – that interest me are those that have been underrated by the general public. I love to discover writers who may have been overlooked because some massively popular author was publishing at the same time, or perhaps a screenwriter or director whose smaller movie was similar to a blockbuster with big stars that got more attention.

Case in point: While I really enjoyed “Minority Report,” a giant film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, based on a Philip K. Dick story, another, smaller movie came out around the same time that was similar in tone and also based on a Dick short. It was called “The Impostor” and it starred Gary Sinise, directed by Gary Fleder. A wonderful film, possibly better told than the bigger film – tighter in its execution. But because it was released in early 2002, not long before “Report,” it was overshadowed and never got the acclaim it deserved.

Case in point: Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” was a major, MAJOR bestseller, spawning all sorts of film and book franchises, spin-offs and heck, possibly action figures, who knows…but fifteen years earlier, the Italian writer Umberto Eco published a densely-packed novel titled “Foucault’s Pendulum” with many of the same themes and “codes.” It’s not an easy book to read, not like Brown’s page-turner, but it’s just as much of a mystery, far better-written and much more clever.

I’ve debated penning a blog that is devoted to the underrated and overlooked (for personal reasons, I must admit) but I’m willing to bet, just like everything on the internet, there are probably dozens of sites already up that deal with the same thing. Maybe I will…I seem to be moving in that direction on a personal level, if not necessarily a professional one (yet).

Deja Vu

Yet another underrated movie. This time with one of my very favorite actors, Denzel Washington. I have loved DW in pretty much anything he has ever done, even the really bad movies where nothing else is good but him. I have especially liked him in movies where he plays against type, like in "Training Day." An excellent perf.

"Deja Vu" got a lot of flak for being confusing when it was out in the theaters last year and I can understand that. It begins as a fairly straightforward terrorist/murder story that ATF agent Denzel has to solve. Then it turns into something more when Val Kilmer introduces him to a technology that reconstructs the past in a continuing flow of visual images somehow based on satellites. Our man is skeptical but goes along with it until finally, he figures out it's an actual link to the past. The question remains: can he/they make enough changes in the past to alter the outcome of the future? Is the past fixed? Are there alternate timelines or a single one and what happens if you can change something in the past?

It's all fascinating and very well-done. I didn't need to pause and ask HH for his input or rewind to see or hear something again. I appreciated that there were no red herrings in terms of the murder suspect, nothing that would be a "whoa" moment in terms of the people we were getting to know. I do wish we had gotten to know DW's partner better, if we had seen him in a scene or two before he died so we could feel more for him when that does happen - and to empathize with Denzel when he realizes it doesn't matter what he does, the man will perish anyway. I wanted to feel more of his sense of futility and renewed determination to save someone.

Kudos to Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio on the script and of course, to Denzel for bringing the character to life.